by Philip Roth
Neil Klugman meets Brenda Patimkin at a country club pool one summer day. He lives in poor Newark. She comes from affluent Short Hills. The attraction sparks immediately, but their worlds couldn't be more different. Neil works at the public library and lives with his aunt. Brenda enjoys tennis lessons and family vacations. As their romance deepens, the gap between their social classes widens into a chasm. Her family's wealth makes Neil feel like an outsider looking in. Brenda must choose between her comfortable suburban life and a future with someone her family sees as beneath them. Their affair becomes a battleground where love collides with money, tradition fights change, and two young people discover that crossing class lines in 1950s America demands a price neither may be willing to pay. This debut work examines what happens when desire meets social reality.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Newark, Short Hills
Period: 1950s
Hardcover · Buccaneer Books