American Pastoral
Phillip Roth
"American Pastoral by Philip Roth is - I actually didn't want to read it because I don't like his books. I've read a few of his books, and I generally don't like them; but somebody told me it was different and it was better, so I picked it up.
The general theme is this guy who kind of has it all, the son of an immigrant; and it's like the American Dream and what happens when it goes wrong. Philip Roth is a very stylized writer I think, and he writes to a specific audience. And so people who like him, they expect that kind of writing.
What I liked about the story is that it's a little bit more of a departure than he's done before. His women characters tend to be really shallow, I think. This book is different I think in the sense that with his daughter, the character of Mary, he gets deeper. And maybe it's because she's not - he can't understand her - that he actually spends more time as a writer trying to illustrate her character. She personifies that age of the 60's when people were rebelling against convention. And I think everyone can - well, I can. Most people identify with this feeling of wanting live outside of society and reject these values. And why does everybody have to get married, and have children, and have these typical lives? I identified with that character. Even though the character's drawn in a kind of a negative way, for me it was kind of a positive character. Apart from the, you know, terrorism and stuff like that - I wouldn't want to identify with that - but the rejection of your parents' values and the questioning of what people should be doing with their lives, I identified with that."
I would give this book a five. I mean, it's the best Philip Roth book I've ever read, and like I said, I'm not predisposed to like Philip Roth.
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