American Pastoral

American Trilogy, Book 1

De: Philip Roth

Narrado por: Malcolm Hillgartner

Here is Philip Roth’s masterpiece, featuring Nathan Zuckerman and the story of 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 domestic terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively listenable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, American Pastoral gives us Philip Roth at the height of his powers.

©1997 Philip Roth (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

The epic story by Philip Roth.

Simply amazing! Felt like a radio-play - so well presented by the narrater Malcolm Hillgartner!

Do you like gloves?

Somewhere in this book is an interesting story, but it is buried by layers and layers of repetitive details on glove making.

Meandering turns into a gripping tale

It started out weak, but then next thing you know, you’ve been caught in the world that is Swede Luvov

Too much

I felt I was drowning in the emotional state of another. Just simply too much to abide.

Masterful writing

This would be difficult for me to read, but listening to it, I was able to rewind and listen again to passages and better understand this “story within a story.” I love the descriptions of Newark NJ, the intertwined relationships of Jews, Catholics and WASPs and commentary on American society. Lou Levov is such a great character.

Darkness

No one can describe darkness of all of the human emotions like Roth. The Swede is forever etched in my mind.

profound and terrifying

The incredible tragedy of a good man, who was his whole life striving to be a good man, to build a good life for his family, only to have his daughter grow up to be a terrorist. His desparate efforts to figure out where and how he went wrong are soul wrenching.

Boring and pointless and excessive

When the narrator sounds bored reading about an author jack off to the female characters he created, you know it’s a bad time. What a boring book.

Dud

I wanted to like this, I really did. I absolutely LOVE all of Roth’s other books.

Sigh.

I just didn’t care about any of these people and their problems.