Goodbye, Columbus (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1959
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Ethnic groups, Jews or Jewish life, Identity, Jews and Gentiles, Dating
The Work
Philip Roth’s first published volume, Goodbye, Columbus, won for the young writer not only the National Book Award in 1960 but also accusations, as a result of the book’s comically piercing portraits of middle-class American Jews, of Roth’s harboring self-hatred. The ambivalent exploration of Jewish American life in Goodbye, Columbus, and its mixed reception among Jewish readers who were sensitive to the public image of Jews established two of the central themes of Roth’s fiction: a frank and often ironic look at Jewish American identity, and an...
[The entire page is 540 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
Related Topics
