Product Description

As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is 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 political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1999 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-03
• Released on: 1998-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.com Review
Philip Roth's 22nd book takes a life-long view of the American experience in this thoughtful investigation of the century's most divisive and explosive of decades, the '60s. Returning again to the voice of his literary alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, Roth is at the top of his form. His prose is carefully controlled yet always fresh and intellectually subtle as he reconstructs the halcyon days, circa World War II, of Seymour "the Swede" Levov, a high school sports hero and all-around Great Guy who wants nothing more than to live in tranquillity. But as the Swede grows older and America crazier, history sweeps his family inexorably into its grip: His own daughter, Merry, commits an unpardonable act of "protest" against the Vietnam war that ultimately severs the Swede from any hope of happiness, family, or spiritual coherence.

From Library Journal
In his latest novel, Roth shows his age. Not that his writing is any less vigorous and supple. But in this autumnal tome, he is definitely in a reflective mood, looking backward. As the book opens, Roth's alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, recalls an innocent time when golden boy Seymour "the Swede" Levov was the pride of his Jewish neighborhood. Then, in precise, painful, perfectly rendered detail, he shows how the Swede's life did not turn out as gloriously as expected?how it was, in fact, devastated by a child's violent act. When Merry Levov blew up her quaint little town's post office to protest the Viet Nam war, she didn't just kill passing physician Fred Conlon, she shattered the ties that bound her to her worshipful father. Merry disappears, then eventually reappears as a stick-thin Jain living in sacred povery in Newark, having killed three more people for the cause. Roth doesn't tell the whole story blow by blow but gives us the essentials in luminous, overlapping bits. In the end, the book positively resonates with the anguish of a father who has utterly lost his daughter. Highly recommended.
-?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The celebrated author of Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint contributes another episode--a long, sprawling one--to the saga of his fictional alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. This time Zuckerman chronicles his experiences with his high school sports idol, "Swede" Levov, whose easy life is thrown off kilter by the tumultuous '60's. At first glance, Ron Silver seems the perfect Roth interpreter. He has the classic aura of an East Coast Jewish intellectual. Unfortunately, he reads in a near monotone. The strain of wading through such a hefty tome exacerbates this ear-numbing flaw. Further, Dove has annoyingly packaged the cassettes to make keeping them in order a chore. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Recovery impossible
From reading through various reviews on here, I imagine my opinion on this book is shared by the majority but there are still many who disliked it very various reasons. I was born after all the events of the 40's, 50's, 60's, and seventies took place. This book was a giant eye-opener for me and taught me more than any textbook or college course. This was one of those books that so touched me personally, and helped me conceive of how my grandparent's moralistic generation warped into the mess of today, that I feel I will never recover from reading this book. For better or worse it has changed me. It may be the heaviest book I've ever read.

Horror Story
As an analysis of Weather Underground types, or homegrown violent terrorists the story fails completely. The book says almost zip about the 60's. This is yet another book by Philip Roth about the mindset of Philip Roth. Basically the US is a horror story for Philip Roth. Roth sees a littleness in the United States and for Roth terrorism is a natural response. This is more a horror story than a work of literature.

Pulitzer, really?
I can not think of why this book won the pulitzer prize. Of course is well written, but that's about that. Unless you love gloves...
Very boring.