Synopses & Reviews
For the last half century, the novels of Philip Roth have re-energized American fiction and redefined its possibilities. Roth's comic genius, his imaginative daring, his courage in exploring uncomfortable truths, and his assaults on political, cultural, and sexual orthodoxies have made him one of the essential writers of our time. By special arrangement with the author, The Library of America now inaugurates the definitive edition of Roth's collected works. This first volume presents
Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, the book that established Roth's reputation on publication in 1959 and for which he won the National Book Award, and his first novel,
Letting Go (1962).
The title novella, Goodbye Columbus, the story of a summer romance between a poor young man from Newark and a rich Radcliffe co-ed, is both a tightly wrought tale of youthful desire and a satiric gem that takes aim at the comfortable affluence of the postwar boom. Here and in the stories that accompany it, including "The Conversion of the Jews" and "Defender of the Faith," Roth depicts Jewish lives in 1950s America with an unflinching sharpness of observation.
In Letting Go, a sprawling novel set largely against the backdrop of Chicago in the 1950s, Roth portrays the moral dilemmas of young people cast precipitously into adulthood, and in the process describes a skein of social and family responsibilities as they are brought into focus by issues of marriage, abortion, adoption, friendship, and career. The novel's expansiveness provides a wide scope for Roth's gift for vivid characterization, and in his protagonist Gabe Wallach he creates a nuanced portrait of a responsive young academic whose sense of morality draws him into the ordeals of others with unforeseen consequences.
Synopsis:
Synopsis:
Edited by Ross Miller, this first volume of the Library of America's definitive edition of the collected works of Philip Roth, published by special arrangement with the author, presents the two books that inaugurated his literary career. Of Roth's first book,
Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, Saul Bellow wrote: "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." This masterpiece of character analysis and social description is joined here by
Letting Go, Roth's first full-length novel, a powerful and ambitious study of the youthful struggle to become independent that is also an extraordinary social tapestry of 1950s America.
About the Author
Ross Miller, editor, is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut and has taught at Yale, Wesleyan, and Trinity College. His criticism has appeared in scholarly journals, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of American Apocalypse: The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago and Here's the Deal: The Buying and Selling of a Great American City.
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