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vegantrav 's review for:
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
Having read too much poor to middling prose recently, I was delighted to read something by a writer who has mastered the craft.
In Roth's prose, one is at home and at ease. There is nothing forced or fake. His prose flows naturally and effusively, and his narrative takes shape effortlessly and entertainingly. The dialogue sounds like what actual people say when they talk. His characters are real. They are likable. There is nothing in them that strikes a false note, even among the minor characters (for example, the radical literature professor, Marcia Umanoff, who has a wonderfully entertaining argument with Lou Levov in the final section of the novel).
I was even reminded a bit of Melville in reading American Pastoral. Melville took long tangents in Moby-Dick to explain the details and trivialities of the whaling industry, and I was utterly fascinated by what I learned. Similarly, Roth takes an equally obscure industry, glove-making, and spends pages and pages describing what goes into making gloves, and I was very much interested in and entertained by these sections.
American Pastoral won a Pulitzer, and it is easy to see why: Roth has created an epic story of an American tragedy, of a family, the Levovs, that rose from poor immigrants to great success in the glove-making business, seeming to live the American dream only to have the dream shattered by the actions of Merry Levov, the daughter of the protagonist, the Swede (the Swede being the nickname of Seymour Levov).
American Pastoral is the story of many people--Lou Levov, the Swede (primarily the story of the Swede), Dawn Levov, Jerry Love, Merry Levov--and both the ordinary, everyday aspects of their lives as well as the momentous events that radically altered the course of their lives. It is a story told with a deft touch, with a great grasp of the human psyche, and it is compelling from beginning to end.
In Roth's prose, one is at home and at ease. There is nothing forced or fake. His prose flows naturally and effusively, and his narrative takes shape effortlessly and entertainingly. The dialogue sounds like what actual people say when they talk. His characters are real. They are likable. There is nothing in them that strikes a false note, even among the minor characters (for example, the radical literature professor, Marcia Umanoff, who has a wonderfully entertaining argument with Lou Levov in the final section of the novel).
I was even reminded a bit of Melville in reading American Pastoral. Melville took long tangents in Moby-Dick to explain the details and trivialities of the whaling industry, and I was utterly fascinated by what I learned. Similarly, Roth takes an equally obscure industry, glove-making, and spends pages and pages describing what goes into making gloves, and I was very much interested in and entertained by these sections.
American Pastoral won a Pulitzer, and it is easy to see why: Roth has created an epic story of an American tragedy, of a family, the Levovs, that rose from poor immigrants to great success in the glove-making business, seeming to live the American dream only to have the dream shattered by the actions of Merry Levov, the daughter of the protagonist, the Swede (the Swede being the nickname of Seymour Levov).
American Pastoral is the story of many people--Lou Levov, the Swede (primarily the story of the Swede), Dawn Levov, Jerry Love, Merry Levov--and both the ordinary, everyday aspects of their lives as well as the momentous events that radically altered the course of their lives. It is a story told with a deft touch, with a great grasp of the human psyche, and it is compelling from beginning to end.