These are illustrated through quirky, often humorous episodes, including one where Hava is unwittingly kept working until Shabbos, and another where she stumbles into a man who may or may not be Orson Welles.

The book's unconventional tone and unpredictable nature have elicited comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Francesca Lia Block.

[1] The book's centerpiece, a scene where Hava and her friend Moish flee the sitcom set and road-trip to Berkeley, California.

[2] Roth has admitted that much of the book pertains to his own struggle between his Orthodox religion, punk culture, and not fitting in with other fundamentalists.

[3] Its title was not originally intended as a reference to The Goldbergs, the radio show created by Gertrude Berg in 1929, which Roth has said he discovered halfway through writing the novel, but he kept it as a panegyric.