to be unequal, but, as the whole dia–
phragm episode demonstrates, she
hasn't yet found a way out of it.
These are very sketchy remarks.
I only want to point out that this
book, like every book, has a right
to
be
read. There is no use in at–
tacking a book with a battery of
preconceived generalizations.
Good–
bye, Columbus,
when read with
care, proves aesthetically acceptable
and therefore deserves to be taken
.eriously. When one has accurately
discerned the nature of the social
comment, then one has earned the
right to quarrel with it. I person–
ally find the social implications rich
in suggestiveness and substantial1y
quite valid.
Meryl Mann
157
SIRS:
Where I criticized Roth for
cheaply cartooning the vulgarities
of wealthy Jews and missing genu–
ine sources of drama in their lives,
Miss Mann goes me one better and
finds high drama in Roth's car–
toons. Apparently her interpreta–
tions are personal, and while I be–
lieve them as such, I can find no
support for them in the text. Neil,
for instance, is more than willing
to admit the tensions and failures
of the Patimkins: he exposes them
at every opportunity. Nor is the
emphasis on sports determined by
Neil's self-doubting: it is presented
as a fact that the Patimkins are en–
gaged in some type of athletic ac–
tivity every time Neil encounters
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