Superior, startingly, incandescently alive (New Yorker)"Unlike those of us who come howling into the world, blind and bare, Mr Roth appears with nails, hair, teeth, speaking coherently. He is skilled, witty, energetic and performs like a virtuoso" (Saul Bellow)"A great novella - amazingly, this was Roth's first book - about love, sex and growing up" (David Nicholls Observer)"Opening the first page of any Philip Roth is like hearing the ignition on a boiler roar into life. Passion is what we're going to get, and plenty of it" (Guardian) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. Philip Roth won the National Book Award for "Goodbye, Columbus", the story which gives this collection of stories its title. The story traces the love relationship of Neil, a young college boy, and Brenda, the spoilt but love-starved daughter of a wealthy manufacturer.