by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 29, 2009

"Goodbye, Columbus" was the first book Philip Roth ever wrote - a collection of short stories first published in 1959. Roth was just 26, but his book won the National Book Award. But more importantly, the book shows the themes and the style that he'd develop over the rest of his 50-year-career

"The heart is half a prophet," reads the Yiddish proverb which opens the collection - and the stories catch some of the foibles Roth observed growing up in the Jewish community. But Roth also touches on sexual repression, a theme he'd revisit to much success later in his career. The title story - "Goodbye, Columbus" - is a 140-page novella about the quirky romance between a socially-climbing college girl and her middle-class boyfriend. The last bittersweet joke is that the relationship ends when the parents discover her diaphragm, and she's afraid to keep seeing him. "I took a train that got me into Newark," the narrator reports sadly, "just as the sun was rising on the first day of the Jewish New Year. I was back in plenty of time for work."

The book's other satires are more overt - like "The Conversion of the Jews," which takes place at a Hebrew school. A troublesome kid is slapped by his Rabbi, then hides on the roof to brood. It's mistaken for a suicide attempt, and worried grownups all cluster beneath him. The child refuses to come down until they concede to him on a religious debate: could an all-powerful god make a virgin pregnant? The throng below quickly agrees - even the rabbi - though the story is more about its characters' conflicts than any specific religious dogma.

"Defender of the Faith" shows an army sergeant in the opposite predicament. There's three Jewish soldiers who are hoping for special treatment - and they appeal to their Jewish sergeant. In the end, the sergeant stops honoring their requests, knowing that he had his own duties to perform. And in "Eli, the Fanatic," a man is assigned to confront an orthodox rabbi who is making the neighborhood uncomfortable - but eventually he snaps under the pressure of enforcing their prejudices. The other stories are also character studies that touch on moral issues. "You Can't Tell a Man by the Song He Sings" finds more troublesome school kids, and in "Epstein" the plot centers around a married 59-year-old man who's decided to have an affair.

It was 10 years later that Roth published "Portnoy's Complaint," finding a welcoming audience in the sexual revolution. He'd published more than two dozen novels over the next half century.

But "Goodbye, Columbus" is where it started.

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