American Pastoral

432 pages

English language

Published March 17, 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

ISBN:
978-0-547-41597-0
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4 stars (3 reviews)

American Pastoral takes a look at the 1960's in America from the perspective of Philip Roth's alter-ego main character, Nathan Zuckerman. Zuckerman meets the brother of Seymour "Swede" Levov, recenly deceased, at a high school reunion. The brother shares the Swede's sad tale of the ruin of his conventional upper middle class life by the turmoil of the sixties.

26 editions

a very unreliable narrator

5 stars

A story within a story. I liked how the frame story flows seamlessly into the actual narrative, which in turn is a completely fictionalized biography by the narrator about an acquaintance about whom he actually knows very little, except that his daughter (presumably) committed a terrorist attack. As if the author is taking a double distance, a very unreliable narrator, very postmodern. Along the way, you also learn all about how leather gloves are made. A great book.

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rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • American fiction (fictional works by one author)
  • Fiction, family life
  • New jersey, fiction