Goodbye, Columbus: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Neil returns to the club with Brenda. He holds her glasses once more as she jumps in the pool. When she asks him to join her and dismisses his fretting over her glasses, he wonders why she doesn’t have her eyes fixed, which irks Brenda. Neil gives her glasses to Doris to hold, who isn’t pleased about being treated like Brenda’s servant.

Neil jumps into the pool, and he and Brenda play and kiss in the water. He thinks, in that moment, that he doesn’t care for anything but Brenda. Afterward, they sit under an umbrella together and talk. Brenda says that it feels like they’re going very fast—that she feels “pursued.” When Neil argues that Brenda invited him to the club, she notes again that he sounds nasty. When he says sorry, she tells him to stop apologizing, because he’s so automatic about it. He points out that she’s being nasty to him. Brenda tells Neil not to argue.

Brenda says that she likes Neil —particularly the way he looks. She says he has nice shoulders, and asks if he plays a sport, but he doesn’t. When she asks if he likes her body, he jokes that he doesn’t. After they sit together for a while, he notes that she hasn’t asked him anything about himself. When she asks him how he feels, he says that he wants to swim. They spend the rest of the afternoon in the water, taking occasional breaks and talking about their feelings toward each other. Neil notes that he didn’t really have the feelings until he talked about them.

Around 4:00 p.m., Brenda’s older brother Ron arrives and begins to hang out with Brenda and Neil. Ron is very large and athletic and he is particularly pleased because the Yankees won their most recent game. Brenda explains that when the Yankees win, their family sets a place for Mickey Mantle at the dinner table. Brenda then introduces Ron and Neil to each other. Brenda tells Ron and Neil to race while she calls home to say that Neil is joining for dinner. Realizing that Brenda has invited him, he backs out of the race so he can call Aunt Gladys to say that he would not be home for dinner. She simply says, “fancy-shmancy.”

That night, Neil eats with Brenda, Ron, Mr. and Mrs. Patimkin, and Brenda’s 10-year-old sister Julie. Neil thinks Julie is very bright, that Mr. Patimkin reminds Neil of his father, and that Mrs. Patimkin is very polite and very beautiful. Neil explains that the Patimkins also have a black maid named Carlota. Neil feels very intimidated eating there. There is not much conversation over dinner, and Neil delivers what little there is in short statements: Ron and Mr. Patimkin asking for more and more food, Neil refusing more food and being told that he eats like a bird, Julie and Ron discussing Mickey Mantle’s batting average, and Mrs. Patimkin attempting to get to know Neil and being constantly interrupted.

As the family waits for dessert to be served, the phone rings, setting off a cacophony. Ron jumps up to answer it, as it is his girlfriend Harriet calling. Mrs. Patimkin instructs Carlota not to mix the milk silverware and the meat silverware, and Brenda is teasing Neil’s calf with her fingers. After dessert, they sit under an oak tree and watch Mr. Patimkin play basketball with Julie. 

Neil and Brenda discuss Brenda’s family. Neil says he likes Julie, and Brenda agrees. Brenda also says Mrs. Patimkin hates her, because she’s jealous of Brenda’s youth and athleticism. Brenda’s mom was once the best tennis player in the state, and Brenda wanted to have a photograph blown up of her mom when she was a girl, but her mom didn’t want her to spend the money. Brenda says that her mother doesn’t know how to enjoy the money they have, and that she “still thinks [they] live in Newark.” Neil is silent, unsure of what to say.

Mr. Patimkin grows tired playing with Julie and asks Neil to finish the game. Neil and Julie begin to play, and Neil observes Mr. Patimkin as he sits and watches them. He notes that Mr. Patimkin’s nose does have a bump in it, but that it suits him well. He thinks that Mr. Patimkin would never bother to fix his nose, but had paid “with joy and pride” to have Brenda’s fixed.

Julie and Neil play, and every time she misses a shot Mr. Patimkin tells her to take it over. Neil tries to play his hardest to catch up to Julie. As the game goes on, he notices Mrs. Patimkin and Carlota watching. When he misses a shot, he jokingly asks to take it again, and Julie says no. He thinks that this is how the game is played: Mr. Patimkin taught his daughters to ask for free throws, but others can’t have the same. When they finish and Julie wins, Julie thanks Neil for the game.