American Pastoral was written by Philip Roth and published by Random House. I own the hard covered book that has 423 pages. I bought it at a used book store for $5.00 CAD. The ISBN number is 037501427
The Plot
Seymour Levov becomes 18 after WW II is over. America has overcome the depression and the war has helped new industries open.
At school he is a great athlete and nicknamed Swede. His father dies and he becomes the owner of his father’s Glove Factory and the owner of an 18th century old house in the middle of WASP, (White Anglo Saxon People), part of the city.
He gets married to a very smart woman and they have a lovely daughter. It seem like has his cake and can eat it!
In the 1960’s every thing changes and his life starts to fall apart. His daughter is a teenager and won’t listen to anyone. She hates the war in Viet Nam and protests against it.
Everything of value is gone up in smoke.
If you want to know what happened you’ll have to read the book.
What I Thought
This is Roth’s 22 book and it won the Pulitzer Prize. That should tell you how good it is.
His plot is carefully constructed and his characters are believable.
As I read this book I wondered if Seymour was Roth placed neatly inside this book.
My Conclusion
If you haven’t read this book yet I hope you will.
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2005