Exactly how steamy is this story?
R
"Make love to me, Neil. Right now."
"Where?"
"Do it! Here. On this cruddy cruddy cruddy sofa." (5.110-5.112)
In Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus sex is hilarious, tender, and absurd, but never graphic—in contrast to his later and perhaps most famous novel, Portnoy's Complaint, which is explicit to the extreme. Still, in reality sex is graphic and messy. So, we really have to wonder how nobody in the family knew Brenda and Neil were having sex before Mrs. Patimkin found the diaphragm in Brenda's drawer.
Speaking of which, Neil's fascination with the contraceptive device provokes frank discussions of sex and sexuality. Roth's 1959 classic summertime romance gives us a window to America on the verge of what's sometimes called "the sexual revolution." In the 2000s, these issues are just as hotly debated as then, though the context has changed. That sounds like an essay topic if we've ever heard one. Also, notice that Neil doesn't say sex—he says "made love" (3.124, 8.254) and "slept together" (6.22). Ah, modesty.