of
The Great Gatsby
is focused
on the fabulous mysteries of
Gatsby's personality,
Goodbye,
Columbus
flo u n d e r s in a
vacuum; for Neil Klugman is
emotionally bankrupt. The only
positive sensation he is capable
of is the physical pleasure of
luxuriating; as for his personal
relations, he despises every
other character in the book.
Yet Mr. Kazin is so impressed
with Neil that he centers his
elaboration of the action around
Neil's "love" and "dignity":
When Brenda, perhaps uncons–
ciously, allows her mother to
discover that she has been
sleeping with Neil so that the
family itself can decisively end
the romance, the betrayal
is
felt
by Neil as a betrayal not only
of his love but of his dignity as
a human being who comes
from the slums.
This account simply doesn't
tally with the book. First of all,
Neil Klugman is shown to feel
no "dignity as a human being
who comes from the slums." As
a matter of fact, he's ashamed
of it. The novel's sole represent–
ative of Neil's lower class Jewish
background is his Aunt Gladys,
who is ridiculed every time she
appears, chiefly for her obsessive
dread of food spoiling in the
refrigerator. (Neil's parents are
his characters, he rapidly
brushes a brittle surface of
T
he year's most
distinguished
biography ...
The turbulent*,
illuminating*
life of
Thomas
Wolfe
by his close friend
and literary a1gent
Elizabeth
No,vell
;'
"T
.
he real story of a writer
whose natural history had all
the makings of a legend ...
an immensely valuable gather–
ing-up of material, a fine chron–
icle to read, an illuminating
portrait of a demonic young
talent of our own period."
-MAXWELL GEISMAR
front page,
N. Y. Times Book Review*
"The excitement that he brought
to living quivers on its every
page ... throbs with the ago–
nies and ecstasies of a turbu–
lent man." -
JOHN MASON
BROWN,
Book-of-the-Month
Club
Nellis
.
765
456 pages,
$5.95
at all booksellers
DOU81fDAY
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Gardell City, N.
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---~~
