Philip Roth: Goodbye Columbus, Hello Newark

by David Silon
I guess I felt a sort of kinship with Philip Roth. Well, vicariously anyway, through my dad. You see he, like Mr. Roth, is from New Jersey - he from Jersey City and Roth from next-door Newark. Both grew up in Jewish households and both were the second children of first-generation American parents. So when I asked him if he had any familiarity with Newark, a major object of my focus in this article, I was expecting stories of the Roosevelt and Truman years, or what happened at the local theater. After all, he always talked about those things in regards to Jersey City, Union City,...