Source: "In Defense of Philip Roth," in Chicago Review, Vol. 17, Nos. 2 and 3, 1964, pp. 84-96.

In the following excerpt, Isaac examines Roth's protagonists in Goodbye, Columbus, "Defender of the Faith, " and "Eli the Fanatic," concluding that his characters "are men in the middle, lacking a sure sense of values. "

Philip Roth is generally concerned with society and its values—the new society that second generation Jews are emerging into and recreating. Goodbye, Columbus, the novella that lends its title to a collection of stories, suggests the complex and irrational position of the rich, semiassimilated Jew in suburban society. The sporting goods tree, the old refrigerator filled with fruit, the active Jewish club lady who has never heard of Martin Buber, are part of a series of signs and indices telling us exactly what has happened to Jewish life. When an extra place is set at the Patimkin table for...