American Pastoral (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Philip Roth
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1940’s to the 1990’s
- Setting: Newark and Old Rimrock, New Jersey; and New York
- Principal Characters: Nathan Zuckerman, Seymour “Swede” Levov, Lou Levov, Dawn Dwyer Levov, Meredith “Merry” Levov, Jerry Levov, Rita Cohen, Bill Orcutt, Sheila Salzman
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism
- Subjects: Family or family life, Religion, American Dream, Jews or Jewish life, Vietnam War
- Locales: New York, Newark, NJ
“The pure products of America/ go crazy,” wrote William Carlos Williams, the bard of Paterson, New Jersey.
In American Pastoral, his twenty-second book, Philip Roth, the scop of Newark, confirms the course of native derangement. It is an astonishingly accomplished novel that, along with other recent achievements including Sabbath’s Theater (1995), Operation Shylock (1993), and Patrimony (1991), certifies its author’s place within the American literary pantheon. In the new book, Roth creates a patriotic paragon of wholesome Americana and then...
[The entire page is 2139 words long]
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