DeMerse’s book# 2: Goodbye Columbus by Philip Roth

I have definitely been slacking and I apologize. After canceling my internet at home is has been hard to keep up on reading the blog and since all of my books have been packed away for the majority of the year (I just started unpacking this week!) it has been hard to read a book as well.

I read Goodbye Columbus before my life got all turned upside down and when I read Erin’s post on Olive Kitteridge two days ago it all came rushing back. Like Erin, I did not know that Goodbye Columbus was a book of short stories. And unlike Erin, I’m sure, I didn’t figure that out until I was about to start the 6^th (and final) story. I probably should have realized it sooner but, in my defense, there was a wedding in the first story where a lot of characters were briefly introduced and I think at least one last name was used in another story. Although I could not remember who the person was, I thought they were going to tie things together somehow. I almost put the book down without finishing because I was so irritated and disappointed that I wouldn’t get closure with any of the characters that I had already met. Maybe my expectations and overall reaction to the book would have been different had I known from the start.

Even though it was not what I expected I did enjoy three of the six stories. The Conversion of the Jews is about a 13 year old boy, Ozzie, who constantly questions his Rabbi. When Ozzie says that the Rabbi doesn’t know anything about God (in front of the entire class), Rabbi Binder smacks him in the face (only a day after his mother had smacked him over his religious questions as well). Ozzie runs to the roof of the synagogue and a crowd gathers. He threatens to jump unless everyone kneels and says that God can do anything, even make a child without intercourse. “You should never hit anybody about God”…I concur. Defender of the Faith is about Sergeant Marx who is taken advantage of by one of his trainees. Private Grossbart manipulates everyone and uses his faith to get out of cleaning, to get out of eating the food that everyone else in the army has to eat, to get a pass to visit relatives when nobody else is allowed to leave the base, and to get stationed in New Jersey (close to his parents) when every other trainee was going to be shipped to the Pacific. Marx and I were both irritated by Grossbart’s antics but I was also irritated that Marx allowed himself to be used like that. He finally put his foot down when he found out about the future orders. He called in a favor and got them changed so that Grossbart would be shipped to the Pacific with everyone else. It was definitely harsh punishment but if I had to learn that you can’t always get what you want then everyone else should too! Epstein was my favorite story. A 59 year old man, Lou, had an affair with a neighbor lady. His wife finds out when she walks out of the bathroom after taking a bath and finds him standing naked in front of the mirror looking at a rash on his crotch. She starts yelling and throws herself on the bed while crying about her “nice clean sheets”. All of the commotion gets the attention of their daughter, her boyfriend, and their nephew who is staying with them. The three of them stand in the doorway watching the naked older couple like they were watching a car accident. The dialogue was hilarious and I wish this story would have been longer than twenty two pages.