Philip Roth

A few words on another classic Roth story in Goodbye, Columbus - Defender of the Faith - apparently Roth's first try at a first-person narrator. Sgt Nathan Marx at first blush seems to be someone like Roth - same cohort educated Jewish - but of course he's not a Roth avatar in the way that Zuckerman or Portnoy become later on Roth's career - he's far more staid and upright and even uptight - a WWII combat vet ( actually making him about a decade older than Roth and not of his cohort come to think of it) and Ivy League and thinking about law school. He may be what Roth would have become has he been born a half-gen earlier. In this story - whose title of course can be read 2 ways - Marx is approached by a pushy Jewish private on the base who plays on their shared faith to seek out favors under the guise of seeking fair treatment. Marx is torn - he dislikes the pvt and does not want to be linked to him in any way much less to seem like he's favoring this guy and two other Jewish soldiers - yet he has to take their concerns - unable to attend Friday services not served kosher food seriously. He should probably refer all this to the Chaplain but he foolishly takes on the cause - alienating himself from his own co and just pushing these guys to ask for more and more - a set-up for a tragedy or at least for a farce.

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