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cojack 's review for:
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
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.