Philip Roth's furious debut novel "Goodbye Columbus" is a piece of American literary history. It tells the story of the Jewish Neil Klugman and the spirited Brenda Patimkin, who embark on an affair that involves not only love but also issues of background and distrust. The five short stories in the collection also revolve around the problem of the Jewish outsider in American society: With relentless humor, Roth illuminates the underlying conflicts between parents and children, friends and neighbors in the Jewish diaspora.