faintgirl 's review for:

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

2.0

---

Yawn yawn yawn. Swede Levov is the Jewish star of his school sports teams, marries an American Beauty, has a kid and the kid goes apeshit. It's not a bad idea for a novel. In fact, it might have been a pretty good one. But what is going on with the writing here? It seems that maybe, well, to put it this way, in other words, if you don't mind me saying, the whole thing is ridiculously overwrought, overly verbose when it really doesn't need to be and generally an exercise in tedium. I think I may have read too many Roth's now. Similar themes, life falling apart in middle age, small town happenings mirroring the politics and the darker aspects of American Society. Man, this one was dull. Swede is supposed to be a bit of a dullard, but really. Eurgh.