All do a good job of conveying Roth's sardonic humor, which-even in this younger work-has a world-weary, sorrowful weightiness. The other stories, which include ""The Conversion of the Jews"" and ""You Can't Tell a Man by the Song He Sings,"" are read by Rubinstein, Jerry Zaks, Harlan Ellison, Elliott Gould and Theodore Bikel. Their gentle courtship is disrupted by issues of class, religion and sex. Set in 1950s America, the idealistic college dropout Klugman spends a summer wooing Brenda Patimkin, an affluent Radcliffe girl from the nearby suburb of Short Hills. The title story, the coming-of-age tale of Newark's Neil Klugman, is read by John Rubinstein. The title novel and accompanying stories are read by a list of top-notch performers. Following the recent release of Roth's vitriolic novel, I Married a Communist (also produced unabridged from Dove, with Ron Silver reading), it's refreshing to hear his most playful early material revisited.
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