In the following essay, Macleod examines parallels between "Goodbye, Columbus" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

In his monograph on the writings of Philip Roth, Bernard F. Rodgers, Jr., draws a useful comparison between Roth's first novella, "Goodbye, Columbus," and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Rodgers notes that Neil Klugman's final ruminations, at the end of "Goodbye, Columbus," remind us of Nick Carraway's observation about Jay Gatsby having lost something of himself in loving Daisy. Rodgers goes on to suggest that, given their typological similarity, any links between these novels are best seen as inevitable structural similarities which should not get in the way of more tangible differences. Nevertheless, several kinds of intriguing correspondences can be pointed to between these novels, some of them close enough to seem, not typological at all, but a conscious part of the artistic design of the later story.

Brenda Patimkin, the...