Hooray! You have added the first book to your bookshelf. Check it out now!
[−]
  • Search Digit-count Valid ISBN Invalid ISBN Valid Barcode Invalid Barcode

American Pastoral [With Headpones]

By Philip Roth, Ron Silver (Narrator)

(152)

| Paperback | 9781602529465

Like American Pastoral [With Headpones]?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Sign up for free

Book Description

As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in tContinue

As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.

7 Reviews

Login or Sign Up to write a review
  • 2 people find this helpful

    contemporary american fiction rarely draws my attention. most of the american writings i've come across are bascially news or business stuff. and there's always one thing in which i find quite funny. it seems to me they are so capable of writing longer than enough and recurring narration like extend ... (continue)

    contemporary american fiction rarely draws my attention. most of the american writings i've come across are bascially news or business stuff. and there's always one thing in which i find quite funny. it seems to me they are so capable of writing longer than enough and recurring narration like extending a 500 words text to a 5000 ones. i was amazed to find the phenonmeon in the book.

    in some online forum i was told philip roth is a great writer the greatest american writer ever. american pastoral is the one i decided to start with. there's something special with the narration and it is kind of captivating. but, but i just couldn't stop asking myself why i'm still reading the book in the course of reading the book. why should i be familiar with the political scene like 30, 40 years ago in another side of the world? why should i know so much so detailly about the misery and disappoinment of *that* generation in particular? seriously i try to grasp the universal sentiment in between the lines but i dun thk i was succeeded. i mean, u can always highlight something to talk about like what you did in your term paper. but i'm not doing my term paper so i won't stress this and highlight that and tell u how great i find the book is so as to align with what the critics suggest. i dunno if philip roth is anew to you, if so and u'd like to read his work, i won't suggest it as your first.

    Is this helpful?

    fruit said on Jan 2, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • I loved the background of the story more than the story of the Levov family itself. I had a hard time to keep on reading about the Swede, his wife, and his daughter. Nevertheless, the background tells of a pivotal moment in US history, when the old world with its certainties crumbled and everything ... (continue)

    I loved the background of the story more than the story of the Levov family itself. I had a hard time to keep on reading about the Swede, his wife, and his daughter. Nevertheless, the background tells of a pivotal moment in US history, when the old world with its certainties crumbled and everything changed.

    Is this helpful?

    Doppelganger said on Sep 8, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Boring!

    This is one of the most boring books I have ever read. Couldn't even finish it; after struggling to read the first two sections, I gave up and got to the end reading one paragraph every ten or so to just get some idea of what he was talking about. Why people like and rate highly this book is beyond ... (continue)

    This is one of the most boring books I have ever read. Couldn't even finish it; after struggling to read the first two sections, I gave up and got to the end reading one paragraph every ten or so to just get some idea of what he was talking about. Why people like and rate highly this book is beyond me. A very great disappointment.

    Is this helpful?

    RumDoodle said on Oct 20, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

Improve data of this book

Groups with this in collection

Prices Change currency & sellers

ISBN Edition List Sale Seller
9781602529465 Paperback $64.99 -- The Book Depository
Other editions
+ 2 copies tradable: →
Added to Shelf Added to Wish List

Inline Translation Mode

Left click to navigate, right click to translate.

inline translation guide

or close

Inline translation is not ready for this page yet.

Inline translation mode.

Share this page with your friends.

The viewport has not loaded.