Author introduction philip roth (1933-), an American novelist. Born in Newark, New Jersey, of Jewish descent. My grandparents are from Austria-Hungary, and my father is a salesman of an insurance company. He grew up in a Jewish community in Newark. He edited the school magazine in high school and the literary magazine in college. 1954 graduated from Nell university in Hubac, and obtained a master's degree from the university of Chicago the following year. After serving in the U.S. Army 1 year, he returned to the University of Chicago as a lecturer in English literature, and has been teaching and writing in the university ever since. 1959 published a collection of novels, Goodbye Columbus, which became famous in one fell swoop. This book won the National Book Award in the second year. 1962, he wrote his first novel, Laissez-faire, describing the experience of a young Jewish intellectual in the University of Chicago and new york. Soon after, he wrote When She Is a Good Woman, which is different from Ross's other novels in style. Instead of writing about Jewish life, it depicts a Protestant housewife in the central and western regions, who tries to reform her father and husband and fails. 1969, he wrote the most controversial and famous novel "Portno's Complaint", which satirized the ugliness of the Jewish middle class in new york by exposing the sexual abnormal psychology and behavior of the Jewish youth Alexander Portno. Ross's main works are: Our group (197 1) ridiculed Nixon * * *; * * * (1972), describing a literature professor who became a huge * * overnight like Kafka's characters; The great American novel (1973) alludes to American politics and society through the fall of a baseball star; My Life as a Man (1974) describes a writer's life and literary setbacks. Professor Lust (1977), the first part of * * *, describes the hero's ups and downs in the ocean of lust as a victim of lust before deformation. In addition, there are Ghost Writer (1979), Zuckerman Liberated autobiographical series (198 1) and the latest novel Deception (1990).
Ross is one of the outstanding representatives of American Jewish writers after the war. He is good at expressing the life and psychology of the contemporary Jewish middle class and reflecting their situation and sense of loss in the changeable American society. He is called five outstanding Jewish novelists along with Saul Bellow, isaac singer, norman mailer and bernard malamud.
Neil Krugman is a Jewish youth who is addicted to fantasy. He lives with his aunt. Once, he met a girl named Brenda Patimkin in the swimming pool. Her graceful swimming, golden brown hair and beautiful figure fascinated him, and he fell in love with her at first sight. So he called Brenda and asked her out. They met at the tennis court, and after they met, Brenda began to like this funny young man.
The next day, they went swimming together and met Brenda's brother Ronald Patikin. After swimming, Brenda invited Neil to her home for dinner, so Neil got to know the Patinkins, especially Brenda's little sister Julie. In the evening, everyone didn't talk much, but they ate a lot, which made Neil feel a little bored. After a hearty meal, Neil took part in the activities of Patikin's house and played basketball with Julie. He deliberately let Julie win, because he likes Julie, but he doesn't like Mrs. Patimkins, even though she is a beautiful woman.
The next day, Neil went to work in the library and met a little black boy who called the art department "Heart Department". He sympathized with the black boy and explained to him enthusiastically. In the evening, he drove to Patimkin's home and was very surprised to see Brenda wearing a jumpsuit. Because he thinks that girls in lincoln college usually only wear short shirts and shorts. That night, Neil stayed at Brenda's house.
In the next 10 days, Neil felt as if there were only two people in his life: Brenda and the little black boy who loved Gauguin's works. He helps the little black boy borrow books to find information during the day and wanders in the ocean of love with Brenda at night. He told Brenda about his life experience. He said he had no plan and no ideal. Summer passed day by day. Neil goes out with Brenda every night. They swim, walk, go for a ride, dance and go to bars on the grounds of watching movies.
One day, Brenda asked her father's permission, and Jon came to her house for a week's holiday. Neil was overjoyed. He said goodbye to menstruation, asked for leave from the library, and asked the little black boy to take home what he wanted to see. Then he proudly went to Brenda's home.
As soon as he entered the door, he heard Julie say that Ronald was getting married and the bride was Harriet. Brenda told him that once Harriet got here, everyone would be in a hurry, so he could stay for two months.
Ronald came to his room and asked him if he liked music and recommended Columbus to him.
Ronald's marriage made the Patinkins very excited. Julie and Brenda are ecstatic about becoming aunts.
In the evening, Brenda took Neil to a dirty and damp storage room, where she believed there was a large sum of money given to her by her father when she was a child. But they found nothing.
The next night, Neil heard Ronald play Columbus' record. He heard the bell ringing steadily, and the soft patriotic tune sounded with the bell. Above the bells and music is a melancholy bass: "Goodbye, Columbus ... Goodbye ..."
Neil stayed at Brenda's house for another week, but he always seemed to feel a little depressed. Harriet is about to get married, which seems unconscious. Brenda will leave unconsciously one day. Thinking of this, he felt an irresistible melancholy.
One day, Neil came to the store opened by Pattim King, which is located in the center of Newark's black area. Here is another scene: hectic, noisy, full of vitality and vigor. Mr. Patimkin said, "If a person works hard, he will be rewarded. You must understand that you won't make any progress sitting there ... Success is not easy ... "This kind of life is like another world for Neil.
Brenda is pregnant. Neil suggested that she go to a private clinic. Brenda was scared, but she finally went. Tired of waiting outside, Neil walked into a church. As he prayed silently, he thought, now the doctor is going to combine Brenda and me. I'm not sure if this is the best way. What do I love? Why did I choose? Who's Brenda? How short is the journey of life? Should we stop and think?
Ronald and Harriet had a grand wedding, and almost all their relatives came. The celebration of the wedding lasted until late at night, and everyone ate, drank and danced desperately. Finally, only Neil and Brenda and the receptionist at the table were left in the hall. Brenda sleeps on the sofa. Neil woke her up and they drove out of town. It was almost dawn.
It's autumn in a blink of an eye. The weather is getting colder and colder, the leaves turn yellow, and overnight, the ground is covered with fallen leaves. Brenda has left Newark for school. Neil went back to the library. He never saw the little boy again. He is unhappy all day and often meditates silently. One day, Brenda wrote that she would come back in the Jewish New Year. Neil was so happy that he decided to go to Boston to see her.
He saw Brenda again, but found that she was very different from before. They are kisses and hugs to each other, but they always feel a little strange to each other. Brenda showed Neil two letters from her parents. It turns out that Brenda's parents already know what happened between them. Although there is no severe criticism, I hope she can learn a lesson and live a new life. Brenda and Neil had a fight about it. Both sides hold their own opinions and blame each other. Finally, Neil picked up his travel bag, put on his coat and left the room.
Neil walked into the campus of Harvard University, where he had never been before, and came to the front of the Raymond Library. He remembered Brenda telling him that there was a Paddy King sink in the bathroom of this library. He thought: what has changed from pursuing and grabbing to love in his body, and then reversed? What turned gain into loss and then loss into gain? Although he knows he doesn't love Brenda anymore, he doesn't know how long it will be before he can make out with any woman like he did with her.
On the first morning of the Jewish New Year, a red sun rose in Ran Ran. Neil returned to Newark.
Appreciation of Works Goodbye Columbus is Ross's famous work, which shows the life of American Jewish middle class through the love story of a Jewish youth. Although the length of the novel is not long, it creates a life picture with ups and downs, many characters and rich scenes for readers with a large span of time and space. The whole story lasted for two months from beginning to end. The beginning and end of love are unexpected, giving people a deep impression of confrontation and confusion. The unfolding of the story and the change of seasons form two parallel lines. Summer is the season when everything grows, and love is born. In autumn, during the Jewish New Year (early September), the harvest is separation. There are dozens of characters in the novel, including Jews, pagans and blacks. Scenes also change frequently. It can be seen that Ross is concerned about not only the love of two young people, but the whole society.
The novel not only realizes its main structure by interweaving people of various social classes and positions, but also realizes the inner subjective feeling of its genre painting through various contradictory things on the theme, such as: progress and retreat, gains and losses of love, happiness and moral responsibility, integration and isolation of different classes, harmony and confrontation between people, faith and compromise, and so on.
Although Neil and Brenda really love each other, their love is like a flower in heaven, which can't stand the tempering of real life. They feel disappointed and confused because they don't know how to face the cold reality. This kind of castle in the air love is obviously impossible for a long time.
Roth is mainly a satirist, and he also mocked Neil's cynicism and ignorance. As the Jewish critic Kincaid pointed out: Ross saw all the signs of the bourgeoisie in Jews and emphasized them. He satirized the bourgeois life of Jews in Newark and its suburbs and criticized Jews and the middle class. "
Ross often describes personal spiritual world and inner conflicts from the perspective of psychoanalysis, so some people call his novels psychological novels. In this work, psychological description also occupies a lot of space. It can be said that Neil has been reflecting on himself while immersed in love. Ross revealed his inner world incisively and vividly. On the one hand, I sympathize with his rebellious consciousness, on the other hand, I criticize his sentimentality and childishness.
Brenda is basically a color scheme in the novel, but she also has an independent meaning. She doesn't passively accept Neil's love, but often takes the initiative. She introduced Neil to her family and invited him to spend a holiday at home, which showed the independent consciousness and enterprising spirit of the new generation of American youth after the war. Of course, this image is relatively simple, not as plump and profound as Neil. But before Ross, this image was rare in American literature.
At the end of the novel, the author symbolically tells people that Neil's life will turn a new page. This shows that the young writers at that time were full of hope for the future. No wonder, at that time, people were dreaming the American dream, believing that tomorrow would be better. Once this dream is shattered, it leaves people with deeper depression and confusion, which are manifested in Ross's later works.