762
reader" can easily correct him
on many details crucial to the
accuracy, and hence to the
aesthetic success, of his novel.
For example:
1.
The central family of the
novel, the Patimkins of Patim–
kin Sink, are passionately
athletic.
Yet, as any decent
sportswriter will tell you,
athletics are not a favorite
vehicle of the upper-middle
class, but rather of
lower
classes
on the move upwards. To il–
lustrate, Jewish athletes were
most prominent in the 30's and
earlier, while lately more and
more champions have corne
from the Negro population.
Patimkin
&
family would be
likely to have
cultural
affecta–
tions-they would sponsor the
Newark Symphony, travel to
Europe, press expensive educa–
tions on their children, and per–
haps even encourage their son
to become a college professor.
So all the scenes in which Roth
dwells u p
0
n the limitless
activities and paraphernalia of
the Patimkins-in tennis, basket–
ball, golf, football, swimming,
etc. - are gratuitous, and have
nothing to do with the Jewish–
ness or the wealth of the people
he is describing.
2. Brenda Patimkin, who so
conclusively cap t i vat e s the
undertrodden Neil Klugman, is
made out to be a Radcliffe girl.
While it is probable enough
that Patimkin Sink would want
to send his daughter to Rad–
cliffe, Miss Patimkin's behavior
betrays not the slightest hint of
her alma mater. Radcliffe girls
are usually intelligent - or at
least sophisticated. Among them
one could find grinds, dilet–
tantes, bohemians, snobs, etc.–
but nary a one aspiring to AlI–
American Girlhood. And yet
Brenda Patimkin is character–
ized as a round-the-clock athlete
who is absorbed exclusively in
sex and clothes and who
wouldn't dream of questioning
her parents' values. She might
just as well
be
a California
"wasp" attending Los Angeles
Junior College. Then, at any
rate, it might not be so difficult
to imagine her insisting that her
boyfriend run round a track
with her. Apparently Radcliffe
closes some symbolic circuits for
Mr. Roth, but all it does for his
novel is to provide Neil Klug–
man, when all is lost, with the
desire to throw a stone through
the window of Lamont Library.
3. Mrs. Patimkin, Brenda's
mother, who once
had
"the
best backhand in the state of
New Jersey," is an avid mem–
ber of Hadassah, an organ–
ization which draws its member–
ship mostly from lower-middle–
class Jews. A country club
woman would more likely be–
long to the Council of Jewish
Women, or - better still - the
