Philip Roth, who has won a National Book Award with his novel "Goodbye Columbus," discusses his literary goals and talks about a work in progress in this episode. He chats informally with novelist Jerre Mangione ("Mount Allegro," "The Ship and the Flame," and others) in this show recorded in Mr. Roth's Greenwich Village apartment. Mr. Roth describes "Goodbye Columbus" as a comedy of "a particular kind of Jewish affluence; the comedy of certain Jewish predicaments." His controversial work "Letting Go" he sees as treating the problem of "pursuing life and pushing one's way into it, of being drawn by the mystery of pain and suffering and deprivation and mistake and error." Roth's moral aspirations in his writing are considered. He also discusses the new major work he is completing, the response of critics to his books, his interest in playwriting, and his opinions of other American writers such as Saul Bellow and Bernard Malamud.