This was SO interesting I love this, revisiting a book you changed your mind about and how you describe your perspective shifts. I’ve thought of doing this with a few novels including My Brilliant Friend. Also the Roy sounds amazing.
Living my values. The first and main thing is my every day interactions showing people they matter and that I’m fighting for marginalized communities, at work and in my conversations with loved ones. I have a friend who was very ahead of the times when it comes to the environment and social justice and she leads by example, never shaming or ostracizing others who haven’t seen the light yet. She’s my role model.
It was quite a humbling and thought-provoking read, for sure. And I love that you have this role model. The every day and local opportunities to show up and support people who need it or are open to talking are so important.
YES, this is why I love Roth so much—and why I loathe so many books today that adhere to a single political side of the aisle. I really believe the actions or beliefs of any of Roth’s characters are so much smaller than the capacious vision of his actual books. Which were often much more capacious than himself personally, as far as I understand him—as any truly great author is less all-seeing in his personal life than in his narrative life.
“When I read it again, closer in age to Swede himself than his radical daughter, I found a meaning in American Pastoral exactly opposed to what I had once understood it to say.”
I think American Pastoral is PR's finest book.. I love his cynical brother and his no nonsense father as counterpoints to the Swede's"Breakfast of Champions" delusions.
I’ve read ten Roths so far but not American Pastoral yet. I’ve heard others agree that it’s his finest, though. So far Sabbath’s has been my favorite for its sheer linguistic dexterity and Ulysses-like formal variety, but I think I’ll have to do AP next.
I read American Pastoral back in the ’90s. I was writing plays and screenplays at the time and, unaware of Roth’s stature as a writer, I remember thinking, Damn, this guy can write. Roth has a remarkable ability to sustain tension at level ten when a character launches into a long invective. I think it’s the brother in American Pastoral who goes off on The Swede. It’s absolutely gripping, the tension never drops for a second.
This was SO interesting I love this, revisiting a book you changed your mind about and how you describe your perspective shifts. I’ve thought of doing this with a few novels including My Brilliant Friend. Also the Roy sounds amazing.
Living my values. The first and main thing is my every day interactions showing people they matter and that I’m fighting for marginalized communities, at work and in my conversations with loved ones. I have a friend who was very ahead of the times when it comes to the environment and social justice and she leads by example, never shaming or ostracizing others who haven’t seen the light yet. She’s my role model.
It was quite a humbling and thought-provoking read, for sure. And I love that you have this role model. The every day and local opportunities to show up and support people who need it or are open to talking are so important.
YES, this is why I love Roth so much—and why I loathe so many books today that adhere to a single political side of the aisle. I really believe the actions or beliefs of any of Roth’s characters are so much smaller than the capacious vision of his actual books. Which were often much more capacious than himself personally, as far as I understand him—as any truly great author is less all-seeing in his personal life than in his narrative life.
“When I read it again, closer in age to Swede himself than his radical daughter, I found a meaning in American Pastoral exactly opposed to what I had once understood it to say.”
I am finally grown up and jaded enough to see it.
I think American Pastoral is PR's finest book.. I love his cynical brother and his no nonsense father as counterpoints to the Swede's"Breakfast of Champions" delusions.
Jerry is a great character.
We all need a Jerry!
I’ve read ten Roths so far but not American Pastoral yet. I’ve heard others agree that it’s his finest, though. So far Sabbath’s has been my favorite for its sheer linguistic dexterity and Ulysses-like formal variety, but I think I’ll have to do AP next.
I will read Sabbath’s next and also interested in Nemesis.
My second favorite is one of his last: Nemesis.
I also the one right before that, The Humbling. (All the way until the very end, anyway.) My second-favorite is Ghost Writer.
I read American Pastoral back in the ’90s. I was writing plays and screenplays at the time and, unaware of Roth’s stature as a writer, I remember thinking, Damn, this guy can write. Roth has a remarkable ability to sustain tension at level ten when a character launches into a long invective. I think it’s the brother in American Pastoral who goes off on The Swede. It’s absolutely gripping, the tension never drops for a second.
There are so many great rants in that book. The one between Lou (father) and Dawn (wife) is also amazing.
Yes, he's a master at character-to-character conflict. I've read it twice and will probably read it again.