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American Pastoral by Philip Roth
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American Pastoral

by Philip Roth

Series: The American Trilogy (1)

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2,99760893 (3.99)11
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English (55)  Italian (2)  Spanish (2)  French (1)  All languages (60)
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Nathan Zuckerman returns to narrate the story of his childhood idol, Seymour "The Swede" Levov. The Swede has lived a charmed life as a high school sports star who becomes a successful businessman and marries a beauty queen. His life takes a dark turn, however, when his troubled teen-aged daughter succumbs to the violence and hysteria of 1960s America. His earnest pursuit of the American dream does not prepare him for the betrayal that he ultimately experiences, and he dies without being able to understand or accept the undeserved cruelty of his fate.

Roth frames the story of the The Swede with Nathan Zuckerman's own attempts to understand the man he had once idolized. Zuckerman ultimately realizes that he has misread The Swede, that what pertains on the surface of the person does not well reflect the unknowable core of suffering and responsibility that motivates him from within.

This is a nuanced portrait of a magnetic personality and those who orbit around him without ever guessing at the tragedy behind the man. ( )
  letteredlibrarian | Nov 3, 2009 |
This is my third Roth, following Portnoy's Complaint and Sabbath's Theater. I was voluntarily Roth-less for about three years following each of my prior Roth reads, and it will likely be three more years before I pick him up again. It's not Roth's prose that accounts for my reluctance. He write good, especially when he's describing Newark in its bustling, industrial heyday. But I don't read novels to get depressed, and Roth's novels depress me. It's not the subject matter - my current fav Denis Johnson isn't all about rainbows and unicorns. But Roth's powerful descriptions of his characters' internal miseries effectively drag me down into the hopeless territory they are inhabiting. The lack of resolution of the most interesting plot line was also irritating. ( )
  gabebaker | Oct 26, 2009 |
Got this out of the library, kind of hated to take it back. Roth is as good as ever, maybe better. So, it's ten years old now, and maybe the stuff about the daughter sounds a bit dated. But the voice is irresistible, and the details about the glove making business turn out to one of the best things in it. So, maybe I'll buy, if I can find room on the shelf. ( )
  paulpekin | Sep 23, 2009 |
wow, amazing writing, story has really stuck with me ( )
  GCPLreader | May 2, 2009 |
I have read almost all of Roth's ouevre, and this is his great tragedy (Sabbath's Theater is his great comedy). Fueled by rage, grand in its reach, deeply historical, it is a masterwork. For a good article on its virtues (contrasted with the mediocre Indignation, Roth's most recent novel), see this article in the online Dublin Review of Books:
http://www.drb.ie/more_details/08-12-...
5 stars and unhesitatingly part of my core collection. ( )
  bitchesbrew | Jan 5, 2009 |
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Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dream when the day is thru, dream and they might come true, things never are as bad as they seem, so dream, dream, dream.
-Johnny Mercer from "Dream," popular song of the 1940s
the rare occurrence of the expected...
-William Carlos Williams, from "At Kenneth Bruke's Place," 1946
Dedication
First words
The swede.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original publication date1997
SeriesThe American Trilogy (1)
People/CharactersNathan Zuckerman, Seymour Levov, Jerry Levov, Merry Levov
Important placesNew Jersey, USA
Awards and honorsTime Magazine's Best Books of the Year (1997.7|Fiction (4), 1997), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 Edition), Guardian 1000 (State of the nation), Newsweek 50 Books for Our Times (2009), Time's All-Time 100 Novels selection, Prix du Meilleur livre étranger (Novel, 2000) (show all 7)
EpigraphDream when the day is thru, dream and they might come true, things never are as bad as they seem, so dream, dream, dream.
-Johnny Mercer from "Dream," popular song of the 1940s , the rare occurrence of the expected...
-William Carlos Williams, from "At Kenneth Bruke's Place," 1946
First wordsThe swede.
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Book description

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0375701427, Paperback)

Philip Roth's 22nd book takes a life-long view of the American experience in this thoughtful investigation of the century's most divisive and explosive of decades, the '60s. Returning again to the voice of his literary alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, Roth is at the top of his form. His prose is carefully controlled yet always fresh and intellectually subtle as he reconstructs the halcyon days, circa World War II, of Seymour "the Swede" Levov, a high school sports hero and all-around Great Guy who wants nothing more than to live in tranquillity. But as the Swede grows older and America crazier, history sweeps his family inexorably into its grip: His own daughter, Merry, commits an unpardonable act of "protest" against the Vietnam war that ultimately severs the Swede from any hope of happiness, family, or spiritual coherence.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:02 -0400)

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