American Pastoral

Through selfless struggle, a Jewish glove manufacturer, Swede Levov, achieves his dream of a lovely suburban home, a beauty-queen wife, and financial well-being in Philip Roth's New Jersey epic, American Pastoral. But when Swede's daughter, Merry, rebels against this middle-class fantasy by joining a domestic terrorist group and taking part in a horrific crime, everything that he's worked for is called into question. Merry has no interest in following in her father's footsteps, and when she goes on the lam, Swede goes in search of her while examining his own values at the same time. Unfortunately, Roth's repetitive characterizations become tiresome as the novel progresses. He lingers obsessively over Levov's blonde, Waspy, non-Jewish looks, and Merry's vindictive transformation into a chunky teenager. Roth also overplays Levov's innocence, making him a little too naïve to be true, a little too certain that America is a country where hard work is rewarded with happiness. Yet by the book's end, Swede's loss of his American Dream is made palpable, along with the loss of his innocent hopes in meritocracy and self-made men. In American Pastoral, Roth convincingly captures the pain of a man who cannot earn the one thing that matters most to him: the love of his daughter.