58 pages 1 hour read

Goodbye Columbus

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1959

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

Goodbye, Columbus is Philip Roth’s first work of literary fiction, consisting of six short stories, published on May 7, 1959. The book won the National Book Award in 1960 and is the first of many popular and successful works of fiction by Roth. Like his other novels and short stories, many of the stories occur in and around Roth’s birthplace of Newark, New Jersey, exploring the Jewish experience in the US. Roth is known for his exploration of sexual relationships as well as their impact on family relationships, and these, along with tensions between Jewish traditions and modernity, are present in the collection. Other popular works by Roth include The Plot Against America (2004), Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997).

This guide references the First Vintage International edition, published in September 1993.

Content Warning: This guide describes and discusses the source text’s depictions of antisemitism and racism.

Plot Summaries

Goodbye, Columbus is a short story collection that explores life in Jewish communities primarily in and around Newark, New Jersey. There are six stories in the collection, with the longest being the titular “Goodbye, Columbus.” This story’s length makes it effectively a novella, as it comprises almost half the collection.

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