American Pastoral
American Trilogy 1 (pulitzer Prize Winner)
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · February 3, 1998
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century—a compulsively readable elegy for America’s promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss, and "one of Roth's most powerful novels ever" (The New York Times).
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- Who it’s for
- A layered, compassionate novel about the distance between American promises and lived upheaval.
- Themes
- The fragility of the American dream, Domestic terrorism and family upheaval, Postwar American life
- Genres
- Literary Fiction, 20th-Century Historical Fiction, Political Fiction
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For younger readers: America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History, The Book Thief, A Northern Light
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PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century—a compulsively readable elegy for America’s promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss, and "one of Roth's most powerful novels ever" (The New York Times).
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A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years Here is Philip Roth's masterpiece, featuring Nathan Zuckerman and the story of Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him. For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of domestic terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, American Pastoral gives us Philip Roth at the height of his powers.
The Dream Unsettled
A layered, compassionate novel about the distance between American promises and lived upheaval.
Come here for
- American literary fiction with private hopes and civic disorder in uneasy company
- A close, sorrowful look at prosperity’s promises
Expect
- A reading experience propelled by sorrow, rage, and compassion
- Domestic bliss giving way to a distinctly American upheaval
Where it sits
| Literary Fiction | 74% |
|---|---|
| Political Fiction | 58% |
| 20th-Century Historical Fiction | 51% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Historical Fiction
- Literary Fiction
- Political Thrillers
- Authors
- Philip Roth
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- February 3, 1998
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- The fragility of the American dream · Domestic terrorism and family upheaval · Postwar American life
- Reading lane
- Historical Fiction