The ambition of American Pastoral

I still marvel at this book a year after reading it. Thought I’d make a thread to discuss. It strikes me that this was a book able to digest the full range of discourse in the States, the spectrum of political leanings and the consequent anxiety on all sides without ever really picking one. Everybody loses, the baton is fumbled between generations and nobody can understand. I feel like this is a book that could only really be attempted by someone who has lived a long time, long enough to see ideas and ideologies come into style, fade away and reappear again. I haven’t read another book like it.

Layered on top of all of it is a metafiction – these are really Zuckerman’s musings and who knows the accuracy? And Roth represents himself via the facade of Nathan, bringing into focus one of the preoccupations of his writing career, fiction vs reality, the idea that we are all a performance.

Also wanted to say that I found the (imagined by Nathan) character of Rita Cohen truly terrifying. What an evil creature. Anyway, anyone else like the book?

by Minimum-Cost-4586