Goodbye, Columbus

Neil Klugman is an intelligent, working-class army veteran and Rutgers University graduate who lives with his aunt and uncle in the Bronx, where he works as a library clerk and quietly seeks his place in a world that often feels out of reach. When summer brings Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy Radcliffe student, back home, their paths cross at a scene of leisure and privilege—the swimming pool of Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, New York. Neil visits the private club as a guest of his cousin Doris Klugman, and a tentative spark quickly grows into something more defiant of their separate worlds. Neil phone-calls Brenda and musters the courage to ask her out on a date, and though she doesn’t remember him at first, she agrees. Their first evening unfolds with a date that stretches late into the evening, ending only when dusk makes the tennis courts unusable, setting the tone for a summer romance that feels like a quiet rebellion against social boundaries.

As their relationship deepens, the majority of their hurdles emerge not from affection but from class and expectations. Brenda comes from a family recently propelled into affluence through a successful plumbing supply business run by her father, and her mother, Mrs. Patimkin, embodies a strict code of propriety and taste. The tensions between Brenda’s growing independence and her family’s insistence on tradition create a tense backdrop for every moment they spend together. The couple also navigates the tricky territory of premarital intimacy, pregnancy concerns, and the complex feelings of Brenda’s parents who worry about how such a liaison might affect their standing and future. The contrast between Ms. Patimkin’s protective pride and her daughter’s widening sense of possibility adds a charged dimension to their conversations, with Mrs. Patimkin’s envy of her daughter’s youth coloring her reactions and decisions.

Brenda’s insistence on keeping the affair alive leads to a dramatic turn: she persuades her father to allow Neil to stay with them for two weeks, much to her mother’s dismay. The arrangement provides Neil with a rare glimpse into Brenda’s private life, including a sense of forbidden access he’s not sure he should enjoy. He finds himself torn between the thrill of closeness and the nagging suspicion that Brenda’s world is built on privileges he’s not meant to share. The dynamic is sharpened by Brenda’s younger sister and her naïve brother Ron, whose hero-worship once extended to college sports and Ohio State University, but who now mirrors a more skeptical, less forgiving outlook on his sister’s choices. The evenings reveal Brenda’s increasingly bold, sometimes reckless, confidence—and Neil’s growing awareness of how brittle their dream of shared happiness might be.

A crucial moment arises when Brenda confides that she does not take birth control pills or use any other pregnancy safeguards—a frankness that unsettles Neil. He voices his concerns about the potential consequences, while Brenda’s willingness to proceed on her own terms challenges both of them to confront the realities of their situation. The couple’s agreement to continue, and Brenda’s compromise in promising to obtain a diaphragm, marks a turning point in their relationship: what begins as a playful, summer romance is suddenly exposed to the pressures of prudence, duty, and the expectations of a family legacy.

As summer gives way to fall, Neil attends Ron’s wedding to Harriet, a concrete reminder that life marches forward beyond their clandestine affair. Brenda returns to Radcliffe for the new academic year, and the two continue to stay in touch by phone, clinging to the possibility of a weekend retreat that might rekindle their secret world. Brenda invites Neil to a Boston hotel for a weekend escape, a chance to carve out a moment of uninterrupted connection. But their hopes are dashed in a painful confrontation: Brenda reveals that her mother found the diaphragm, and with it, proof that their relationship had been discovered. The couple’s argument centers on trust, secrecy, and the unsettling question of whether Brenda’s deliberate sniff of danger was a signal to end the affair. Neil asks why she would let such an indiscretion be discovered, and Brenda ultimately chooses to side with her parents, ending the romance even as he stands in the hotel room, watching her break down in tears.

The story closes on a note of heartbreak and quiet resignation. Neil leaves the hotel after Brenda’s decision to end what began as a summer fling, stepping out into the night with a heavy but dignified sense of loss. The film renders a nuanced portrait of two people who, drawn together by curiosity and attraction, confront the stark realities of class, tradition, and the demands of family when love challenges a carefully maintained social order. Their summer romance, brief yet intense, becomes a lens through which each character measures their own values, hopes, and the consequences of choices made within the world they inhabit.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 12:38