Philip Roth

Reading further into Philip Roth's great debut novella Goodbye, Columbus and seeing the tensions and parallel story lines develop so artfully. One of the most beautiful passages is narrator Neil's description of his walk thru the Potemkin house in short hills - and his discovery of the old refrig in the basement. He recognizes that this refrig must have made the journey up from Newark w the Potemkins - and he reflects that it began life in a four family house and he whitefish and cream cheese and now - it's filled w fruit. Neil stuffs his pocket w cherries - plucking from the abundance of Potemkin village. He's caught in the act by kid sister Julie - and that leads to development of their relationship perhaps most important in the work - she insists on playing various sports and keeps asking for do-overs, which her fam always allows but Neil will not. It seems cruel of him but actually he is the only one trying to keep her from being a spoiled brat - so he is "educating" two kids. But what of his relationship w Brenda? One wrong note in this novella for me is her sexual avidity - she does not seem to me like someone who would have sex w (new) boyfriend in tv room while whole fam is at home - even more so if I remember accurately the demise of their relationship. But Roth doing a great job of introducing the kind of narrator an avatar of Roth himself who will guide us through the social strata of Newark Jewry w attention to social markers and details on par w Flaubert as well as w his greatest contemporary Updike. What a pair - two great American novelists who limned such different but parallel worlds.

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