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Description

Philip Roth's award-winning first book instantly established its author's reputation as a writer of explosive wit, merciless insight and a fierce compassion for even the most self-deluding of his characters. Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin, he of poor Newark, she of suburban Short Hills, who meet one summer break and dive into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love. The novella is accompanied by five short stories that range in tone from the iconoclastic to the astonishingly tender.

Reviews

"Superior, startingly, incandescently alive" New Yorker "Unlike those of us who come howling into the world, blind and bare, Mr Roth appears with nails, hair, teeth, speaking coherently. He is skilled, witty, energetic and performs like a virtuoso" -- Saul Bellow "A great novella - amazingly, this was Roth's first book - about love, sex and growing up" -- David Nicholls Observer "Opening the first page of any Philip Roth is like hearing the ignition on a boiler roar into life. Passion is what we're going to get, and plenty of it" Guardian