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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Reading this was one of the most miserable reading experiences I've had. I stuck with it because it was a book club book and I have wanted to read it for a long time, so I didn't want to just give up on it.
While I found some of the themes interesting, but I felt like they have been better explored in other books. I was reminded a lot of The Great Gatsby, but that just made me wish I was reading it instead. It annoyed me that the narrator just disappeared and I found the writing style grating.
For some reason I had trouble separating the author from his characters, perhaps because I've read that the narrator is fairly autobiographical. After just 50 or so pages and for no clear reason I began thinking that Roth must not like women very much. I began reading up on him and this book and nearly every article mentioned accusations of sexism so at least it wasn't just me. He just comes across as a bitter old man.
I did think it was kind of funny that the narrator starts off making a few comments about regretting not having kids but then proceeds to tell a story about why having kids isn't always such a great thing. As someone who doesn't want kids I appreciated that.
While I found some of the themes interesting, but I felt like they have been better explored in other books. I was reminded a lot of The Great Gatsby, but that just made me wish I was reading it instead. It annoyed me that the narrator just disappeared and I found the writing style grating.
For some reason I had trouble separating the author from his characters, perhaps because I've read that the narrator is fairly autobiographical. After just 50 or so pages and for no clear reason I began thinking that Roth must not like women very much. I began reading up on him and this book and nearly every article mentioned accusations of sexism so at least it wasn't just me. He just comes across as a bitter old man.
I did think it was kind of funny that the narrator starts off making a few comments about regretting not having kids but then proceeds to tell a story about why having kids isn't always such a great thing. As someone who doesn't want kids I appreciated that.
So, this was excellent. At times I didn't devote the attention that it deserved, but even so it was a wonderful story -- and the writing was amazing. (The man wrote a sentence that went on for 2/3 of a page, and it made perfect sense!)
The story basically chronicles the disintegration of a family after their daughter commits a terrorist act in their tiny hometown. We spend much of the novel coming at things from the point of view of the father, who is increasingly unable to understand how things have gotten to where they are.
I'm not really sure what else to say about this -- but it was great. I'm sure I'll come back to it again someday.
The story basically chronicles the disintegration of a family after their daughter commits a terrorist act in their tiny hometown. We spend much of the novel coming at things from the point of view of the father, who is increasingly unable to understand how things have gotten to where they are.
I'm not really sure what else to say about this -- but it was great. I'm sure I'll come back to it again someday.
Tough to read--tough to get through, but makes a big impact.
I'm not sure how to rate this - it's a hugely thought-provoking novel but I can't say I enjoyed the reading experience. I can see why it is a prize winner and in many ways why it can be considered a masterpiece - but still not quite the book for me.
We rear children to be adults, transitioning from complete control to none. If free will is part of being human, as a child makes more decisions, they become more human. And as they become more human, their capacities for both good and evil increase. So we're back to the ancient questions--how much blame for the sins of the child rests on the parent? How much is nature, how much nurture? How much of nature is predetermined, how much is malleable by choice? No profound thoughts from me, but I again appreciate that gift of a great novel, to ponder the big questions from inside great characters heads.
Did I miss it or does Roth never address that "Levov" rhymes with "glove"? If not, baller move.
Did I miss it or does Roth never address that "Levov" rhymes with "glove"? If not, baller move.
In terms of plot narrative, this book is really not that impressive. Its story is very very bare, so bare that I can leave it to the other reviews on Goodreads or Rotten Tomatoes (the movie review), to summarise it for you. If what you're looking for, is a captivating story in a strict sense, I'd recommend you to pass this.
However, the book is littered with many thought provoking quotes and reflections, which is where the worth of the book lies. Quotes and reflections that make you uneasy about yourself and life. There's so many that I am unable to list that all down comprehensively, but will provide Goodreads url to them instead.
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/598119-american-pastoral
However, the book is littered with many thought provoking quotes and reflections, which is where the worth of the book lies. Quotes and reflections that make you uneasy about yourself and life. There's so many that I am unable to list that all down comprehensively, but will provide Goodreads url to them instead.
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/598119-american-pastoral
It took me a while to get into the story, but once I did, I tracked along quite nicely. Roth's style of writing is quite interesting from a writer's point of view, but I wasn't sure that I completely enjoyed it. There were quite a few twists and turns, but you also get the sense of an unreliable narrator, which was interesting but can be a little frustrating at times. Overall, glad I read the book, but it wouldn't be my first recommendation - a good book to read for aspiring writers, however!
reflective
slow-paced
Hard to rate this one. Parts were so amazing, but others just killed me with all the droning and ham-fisted assaults with his message. Roth is definitely a "tell" rather than a "show" author. Enough has been written on American Pastoral, that I don't need to go into a lot of detail.
My thoughts: This is a very male book. Not macho, just...I don't know...a very male point of view and most of the male characters are far more fully realized than the female ones. His concepts were great and thought provoking, and the book tackles so much (how each generation--esp descendant of immigrants--is different; how each generation deals with social and political change; how you can do everything "right" and still end up screwed; family and relationship dynamics; whether we can ever truly know another person or even ourselves; what exactly is the American Dream?). The conceit that we don't really know what is true is fascinating but makes analyzing the book tough. Seymour's story is told by a writer in the book who may have made up/imagined huge swaths of it. He never interviewed Seymour, so how could he possibly know what Seymour was thinking? The fictional author idolized Seymour, so that certainly colors his take on Seymour's life.
Parts were maddening. HATED the Rita Cohen scenes. I know they were there to make the reader squirm, but still..Enough with the verbal cruelty!...skipped through those. The endless arguments between father and daughter got old. The glove details...oh for the love of god. There were times in the book I said aloud, "Jesus, Roth, just shut the f*** up!" So yeah, many 5-star parts of this book, but the low points bring the average down for me. Would be a great book club pick, as there is much to discuss from a literary point of view.
Note: Listened to this on audiobook. Narrated by Ron Silver. He did a good job, but many of the voices were too similar. And because the book deals with flashbacks or remembered conversations, it can get a little confusing in spots. Also, the Audible audio quality was not good in certain sections. Weird background noises.
My thoughts: This is a very male book. Not macho, just...I don't know...a very male point of view and most of the male characters are far more fully realized than the female ones. His concepts were great and thought provoking, and the book tackles so much (how each generation--esp descendant of immigrants--is different; how each generation deals with social and political change; how you can do everything "right" and still end up screwed; family and relationship dynamics; whether we can ever truly know another person or even ourselves; what exactly is the American Dream?). The conceit that we don't really know what is true is fascinating but makes analyzing the book tough. Seymour's story is told by a writer in the book who may have made up/imagined huge swaths of it. He never interviewed Seymour, so how could he possibly know what Seymour was thinking? The fictional author idolized Seymour, so that certainly colors his take on Seymour's life.
Parts were maddening. HATED the Rita Cohen scenes. I know they were there to make the reader squirm, but still..Enough with the verbal cruelty!...skipped through those. The endless arguments between father and daughter got old. The glove details...oh for the love of god. There were times in the book I said aloud, "Jesus, Roth, just shut the f*** up!" So yeah, many 5-star parts of this book, but the low points bring the average down for me. Would be a great book club pick, as there is much to discuss from a literary point of view.
Note: Listened to this on audiobook. Narrated by Ron Silver. He did a good job, but many of the voices were too similar. And because the book deals with flashbacks or remembered conversations, it can get a little confusing in spots. Also, the Audible audio quality was not good in certain sections. Weird background noises.
Philip Roth is a great writer. He builds these deep and intricate character portraits, and reading his books often feels like staring at this grand painting that's hung on a wall, as the painter slowly explains the painting, the characters in it, the wider setting, zooming in on seemingly-invisible brush strokes to tell a magnificent story. In many ways, reading Roth is a privilege.
Keeping all of the above in mind, this book did not impress me. Yes, he did an amazing character portrait of the Swede (and to a lesser degree the women...to a much lesser degree), yes he painted this beautiful painting of a man realizing that everything he once thought about life and the world was just that: his own thoughts about life and the world; thoughts that could be contested and rejected and transformed. But there's also an uncomfortable rage there and that scared me, because it's that straight white man rage that fuels misogyny and war, and maintains the patriarchy. It was angry and every page seemed to get angrier, and the anger was understood in the context of the character, but it seemed to end there. Anger. That was all. No understanding, just anger.
And then there was the repetition. The repetition, the repetition, the repetition. Oh dear. Merry killed someone, we are told over and over again. She killed someone. In italics, in CAPS, in screams and in whispers, over and over again. She was raped, she was raped, she was raped. This inability to grasp things is a great insight into the main character. Being born a straight white man in America you tend to assume that things are just the way you think they are, there's a truth and that's it, and your truth can never be false. And so when you are confronted with something that begins to crack this truth, the denial begins. Hence the disbelief, the repetition, the lack of understanding, the inability to see things from a wider perspective, to grasp power and the power and privilege of your own narrative. Roth does this brilliantly, but after 400+ pages I just want to leave the Swede to wallow in his incomprehension.
And that's the problem. I just couldn't care for the character, so I couldn't give a shit what happened to him. I had so little sympathy for this angry man who didn't seem to be close to understanding that his way is not the highway. Perhaps it's because I stopped this book halfway through and left it for a year until, after seeing how many of my friends raved about it, I decided to finish it off. And I desperately hoped for something, some redemption, some indication that he might change, but other than the final few 40 pages, which were interesting but did not provide this redemption I was looking for, I was left feeling that I inhabited this world of a man I would never like without actually seeing him redeem himself. Instead it was uncomfortable and unsympathetic. And despite Roth's brilliant writing, if I'm left not giving a shit about the character and not sympathizing with him, then that is a failure of the writing in my eyes.
There's a telling line towards the end of the book where the Swede pleads with his wife Dawn to cut his father some slack. "The man had been brought up a certain way, and that's the way he was, and there was nothing anybody could do about it so why stir him up?"
That seemed to be the general feeling-- this poor patriarch who suddenly realizes he can't control the women in his life and has a breakdown. Why can't we just leave him alone? Why, why, why? She was raped, she killed someone, the leather gloves, etc.
I will read Roth again. The Human Stain is a brilliant book (though perhaps I did read it at a different point in my life), but I'm a bit Roth-ed out after this beast.
Keeping all of the above in mind, this book did not impress me. Yes, he did an amazing character portrait of the Swede (and to a lesser degree the women...to a much lesser degree), yes he painted this beautiful painting of a man realizing that everything he once thought about life and the world was just that: his own thoughts about life and the world; thoughts that could be contested and rejected and transformed. But there's also an uncomfortable rage there and that scared me, because it's that straight white man rage that fuels misogyny and war, and maintains the patriarchy. It was angry and every page seemed to get angrier, and the anger was understood in the context of the character, but it seemed to end there. Anger. That was all. No understanding, just anger.
And then there was the repetition. The repetition, the repetition, the repetition. Oh dear. Merry killed someone, we are told over and over again. She killed someone. In italics, in CAPS, in screams and in whispers, over and over again. She was raped, she was raped, she was raped. This inability to grasp things is a great insight into the main character. Being born a straight white man in America you tend to assume that things are just the way you think they are, there's a truth and that's it, and your truth can never be false. And so when you are confronted with something that begins to crack this truth, the denial begins. Hence the disbelief, the repetition, the lack of understanding, the inability to see things from a wider perspective, to grasp power and the power and privilege of your own narrative. Roth does this brilliantly, but after 400+ pages I just want to leave the Swede to wallow in his incomprehension.
And that's the problem. I just couldn't care for the character, so I couldn't give a shit what happened to him. I had so little sympathy for this angry man who didn't seem to be close to understanding that his way is not the highway. Perhaps it's because I stopped this book halfway through and left it for a year until, after seeing how many of my friends raved about it, I decided to finish it off. And I desperately hoped for something, some redemption, some indication that he might change, but other than the final few 40 pages, which were interesting but did not provide this redemption I was looking for, I was left feeling that I inhabited this world of a man I would never like without actually seeing him redeem himself. Instead it was uncomfortable and unsympathetic. And despite Roth's brilliant writing, if I'm left not giving a shit about the character and not sympathizing with him, then that is a failure of the writing in my eyes.
There's a telling line towards the end of the book where the Swede pleads with his wife Dawn to cut his father some slack. "The man had been brought up a certain way, and that's the way he was, and there was nothing anybody could do about it so why stir him up?"
That seemed to be the general feeling-- this poor patriarch who suddenly realizes he can't control the women in his life and has a breakdown. Why can't we just leave him alone? Why, why, why? She was raped, she killed someone, the leather gloves, etc.
I will read Roth again. The Human Stain is a brilliant book (though perhaps I did read it at a different point in my life), but I'm a bit Roth-ed out after this beast.