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American Pastoral

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American Pastoral

By: Philip Roth
Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Discover the Pulitzer-prize winning novel that confirmed Philip Roth as one of the greatest American writers.

'Swede' Levov is living the American dream.

He glides through life cocooned by his devoted family, lucrative business, sporting prowess and good looks. He is the embodiment of thriving, post-war America, land of liberty and hope.

Until one sunny day in 1968, when Swede's daughter, Merry, commits an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism and the Levov family is plunged into mayhem. Extraordinarily nuanced and poignant, American Pastoral is the first in an eloquent trilogy of post-war American novels that still resonates today.

PRAISE FOR AMERICAN PASTORAL:
'Angry, grieving, witty, acute' Sunday Times
'A profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years' Financial Times
'A momentous novel' Observer

©2016 Philip Roth (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Political War
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Critic reviews

Marvellous... Raging and elegaic
Full of insight, full of sharp ironic twists, full of wisdom about American idealism, and full of terrific fun... A profound and personal meditation on the changes in the American psyche over the last fifty years
A tragedy of classical proportions...a magnificent novel
Wonderful, rich...entirely gripping
A momentous novel
Brilliantly written...angry, grieving, witty, acute...compellingly and convincingly rendered
Utterly tragic and compelling. It's one of the greatest modern American novels
[American Pastoral’s] mix of sly humour and incendiary passages that expose the dark heart of the American dream
All stars
Most relevant
An impressive reading for a complicated and spiralling book. All of Roth is worth reading and this is a great place to start.

A brilliant reading for a brilliant book.

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A profound book. Gives an insight into American Jewish consciousness in the Nixon period and gets to the general turbulence of that time. Ingeniously recreates the life of the main character based on the imagination, and tells a captivating tale of his downfall. Such rich characters, especially the grandfather. The narrator's pitch and tone were perfect.

Captivating story and characters, brought to life in audio

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Some good passages about America, but otherwise really hard work. It’s a theme for me with Roth, Human Stain was better but still difficult. I won’t be reading any more from him.

Awful book

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