Reviews - American Pastoral

970 reviews for:

American Pastoral

Philip Roth

3.8 AVERAGE

cogee87's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sball22's review against another edition

5.0

Incredibly prescient

mrewers's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

catbird1701's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

I just couldn’t get into the story, and I didn’t like the style of writing.

slowmoving's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

isaisaisaisa's review against another edition

3.0

More like a 2.5. This book just felt too long. It was detailed to a point of being boring sometimes and occasionally felt repetitive.

paroof's review against another edition

5.0

Honest, funny, heartbreaking, brilliant. Seymour "Swede" Lavov is the embodiment of the American Dream until everything is interrupted by political and social upheaval that touches his family in 1960s and early 70s. In this book Roth forces us to examine many things, but most of all our self-deception.

I chose this book because it was listed on several "top 100 novels" lists but it was not at all what I expected. I had never heard anything about it before and so, even though I know better, I formed my expectations based on nothing but the title and book cover. I didn't even realize it had been a Pulitzer prize winner.