I loved this book completely. I remember when I read it I was speechless. To me it's a book about bad things happening to good people. Universe is chaos, man. It's crazy. The book is crazy good. Roth is amazing.
This was my first Roth novel as well. I read it just a few months ago. Brilliant. Scathing. And yes, Roth's infamous claim that one hasn't read a novel if he doesn't finish it in a week is preposterous. I get the impression that he enjoys being a contrarian.
Thank you for this. I started this book twice last year, and I struggled with its wordy, dense style. I really want to finish it because I loved The Human Stain. I think your review and your teaser for the ending has helped put me back on track to get through and finally finish.
I watched the movie first, *gasp!* but I didn't know it was a book. I watched it and my brain exploded it's so dark and deep and I needed to dig up everything about this book. I've been watching all kinds of interviews and now I just need to read the book I went to the real library and took it off the shelf. This review is just a stop on my journey to process every possible aspect of this book. The next step would be to actually have a conversation with Ewan McGregor. I love the fact that this was his directorial debut and he produced such a memorable performance as well. This is the first video of yours I've watched, but I think I will stick around.
I appreciate you reading that quote near the end, because it highlights that this book is not merely about the destruction of a person - it is about the loss of one's sense of self. Actually, it's a bit more nuanced than that - it's about the bifurcation of one's self into an exterior and interior. This idea of an interior, ie a secret self, is what ties the book to the others in the trilogy, I think (I've only read the third book, the Human Stain, which is about the idea of secrets as identity). I loved this book, but I also know Roth really, really isn't for everyone.
Great review. I walked around numb after I read the book. A depressing novel but a masterpiece. Have you read “The Human Stain” and “ The Plot Against America” ? I highly recommend.
Ruairi Flynn true. Heard they're working on it together with the bass player from tool and the director of "Shrek" and "Shrek 2" (for whatever reason hahahaha)
Thank you for your video, I started reading this book but I had difficulty going on with it. now I will start again a different perspective in my mind, your wonderful review. I am passing through a difficult period of my life because my mum passed away three weeks ago and it was a tremendous shock to me but literature and authors (poets in particular!) are in a way getting me back to reality. So please if you have further reading you would like to suggest, feel free and I will really appreciate your help. I am an English teacher at high school. Therefore, the more I read, the better!! for me and my 'kids'!
Erica, I know what you mean. My mom was in hospital dying 14 years ago. I set aside whatever I was into, and hit the library for a stack of Anita Brookner's novels. My favorites are LOOK AT ME and A MISALLIANCE. Her characters are bright, warm women who have no luck in love!
You should try to complete the Harold Bloom quartet of Roth, Cormac McCarthy (a favourite of yours, I know), Thomas Pynchon & Don DeLillo. They all tackle post-war America in different ways, whether through allegory, themes or setting & they’re all great.
I might be late :) I finished the book yesterday and was shocked that it is still so relevant. My two cents: the novel is all about struggle and consistency. The Swede does his best throughout his life to be consistent and do the right thing. On the contrary, he receives struggles. From his daughter, his wife and his brother (by the way, Jerry is definitely my favourite character). The dinner (the last dinner ;) ) is fierce. The architect, the professor, his ex-lover, his father. My God, there's a lot to explain. IMHO, the three main male characters (Zuckerman, Swede and Jerry) represent the main ways of dealing with life. Zuckerman's life is described as 'normal', nothing extraordinary, he is alone, he is not rich, he followed what he loved, writing, but he is not fulfilled. The Swede always did what was considered 'the right thing' and look where he ended up. Jerry has always taken what he wanted, but at what cost? Is his life a good one? Being hated by his father? Having who knows how many ex-wives and children? Merry's struggle against his family is not unlike that between today's children and their parents (think progressivism, non-binarism, etc.). The book, however, has some flaws. The biggest one is, in my opinion, the ending. I did not expect the now common over-explained ending. However, the book ends somewhat abruptly. Ps. Do not read any value judgements about political views, religion or way to approach life in the comment.
I read American Pastoral this summer, with an Italian translation, one month before leaving for the U.S. It's been one of the greatest book I read so far but I didn't find it hard to digest and I don't know if it's why was in Italian. It was devasting but not hard to read. Anyway thank you for your videos, I found out about your channel 2 days ago, looking for a review of Moravia forgetting that my RU-vid now is in English, and you appeared in as my first suggestion( what a bless!) I'd like to suggest you a book That I read here in the US a couple of months ago. It's called Vino e Pane by Ignazio Silone - I think the English title is bread and wine-. It's a book written by a member of the resistance and it's a mind blowing reading, you won't regret it. You should be able to find an English version since in the '40s and later on became very popular in the US
American Pastoral, an incredible book. I still think of Swedes attempt to impress a woman with a coat made of dried squirrel skin and I laugh because it’s at the same time sweet and pathetic.
Great choice, my favorite Roth book. How's about some Bruno Schulz - Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass? Worthy and unknown with a tragic backstory involving the Nazis.
It’s interesting that I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but I was wondering if this story could perhaps be read with some kind of parallel to the holocaust. Bad things happening to good people who absolutely did not deserve it. Great video by the way!
Cliff I highly recommend "The Humbling" and "Nemesis" by Roth. Knowing your taste I am sure you would enjoy "Portnoy's Complaint" too. I haven't read "American Pastoral" yet but the movie with Ewan McGregor is great. Also "Elegy" which is based on "The Dying Animal" and features Penélope Cruz, Sir Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard, Debbie Harry and Charlie Rose!
You’re right about the reason this book is so hard to read. Its not because he’s so cruel to his protagonist, but because he doesn’t gloss over anything which happens to him. He considers everything ounce of distress he must feel and almost obsessively details it - like he thinks it would be cheating to leave out any of his pain. This is probably just a very good book rather than a great one, but some of the dialogue is absolutely great, especially the Swedes confrontations with Rita. Can’t believe McGregor botched the film so badly with such good material.
Please Review the savage detectives by Roberto Bolaño,I’m from México so I don’t know if that’s the title in inglish, here it is Los Detectives Salvajes
You might like 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society'. Historical fiction told in an epistolary format; musings on love and family and books. Excellent read. Also 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog'--funny and cerebral, with a dose of nihilism.
I so get what you mean about needing that certain amount of concentration when reading Roth's American Pastoral (or any of his books for that matter) but 4 months? hahaha! That took a really long time. But yea, I get you. I am a chapter away from finishing this book...after 8 days so I am still on Roth's two-week mark. :)
Always interesting to hear what others think about a book I read too. I am not sure I agree with you about how the book is about the dissolution of the middle class and the lack of meaning in the violence. It seems to me the book is about a transformation: from a shared, community-based narrative (the world in which the Swede thrived, because he embodied a hope, a ray of joy for a community - as you rightly pointed out) to an individual one, that fails to connect people. But still the narrative exists! Look at the daughter of the Swede, she's really bright, but her view of the world is self-centered (the stuttering is a great metaphor here) and for this reason her ways to reach others end up in being totally misguided (the bomb, the religious conversion). Also the beautiful style of Roth, so rich in small and precise details (we all ended up in knowing everything about gloves, didn't we? :-) ), seems to be his way to anchor our collective experience to a shared narrative made of tangible things, in opposition to the fleeting objects of the individual's views. To me this is really a book about narratives that change - and the pain of being stuck with a view of the world that is not anymore the dominant one.
Have you read Michael Gira's new short story collection, The Egg? If not, I highly recommend. Also thank you for introducing me to Swans through your review of The Consumer way back. I appreciate the hard work you put into these reviews.
Roth forces the reader to consume the thesis contained in the novel. The events contained are often banal in isolation but grand in the larger scope of the characters and their worlds. It is terrible gruel to gulp down, the utter corruption of a pure ideal, a literal description of people in hell, innocence destroyed by abnegation and the naivete of a children. Poor Swede, the very image of the american hero, broken. In the end, I wanted to know more about his daughters world, which left me unsatisfied. The thesis is about the catastrophic pressure that the larger societal project of sixties america delivers to the perfect family and how that collapses into ultra violence, but there is so much not mentioned in the discourse. Perhaps this is why the images linger so. Thanks for making me think about this again, great channel, quality product.
thank you for pronouncing pastoral the way it is in my head. But you got the order wrong, he reunites with the Swede first and then runs into the brother (that's how he found out he died)
Hey Man,i really enjoy your videos.I mean,it focuses primarily on Literature and all(did you get the catcher in the rye reference haha). Please post something on Italo Calvino dude.If you haven't read him,then please do....
Starting with American Pastoral was probably a bad idea. I know it's cliche among Roth fans, but Portnoy's Complaint is definitely a better way to get into his work. It's funny, really funny, while still possessing some of that depressing character study stuff.
Saw the film which was directed by and starred Ewan McGregor as the Swede. I'm sure the book is better but the movie was heartbreaking enough, so I'll pass.
Hey Cliff, whatever happened to your film-review channel? I understand that you're probably busy enough as it is but I sincerely believe that great movies have the power to change peoples lives for the better, just like great novels can.
American Pastoral is one of my favorites. I read the full trilogy but I felt that the second book (I Married A Communist) was entirely unnecessary. The first and third books were incredible. Most of Roth's books are difficult to read. I like to recommend his most famous works: Goodbye Columbus & Portnoy's Complaint to start. They are hilarious.... much less depressing than everything else.
The violence wasn't necessarily senseless since it had a political / anarchist motive. Also I don't think the Swede was a perfect father. The scene where he kisses his daughter in the car was significant and probably alludes to some hidden Electra complex that might also explain some of the daughter's behaviour. Loved the thunderclap
“What I mean is. A lot of writers say: ‘Oh how painful it is to write, just to get the word down is pure agony.’ To me I don’t feel any of that! It comes out, easy. Melted butter. Melted bullshit. There is no work, it just flows out.” Charles Bukowski.
Esteban B I disagree, his best work was some of his last. Ham on rye, is my favorite novel of his. He’s up there with the French and Russian writers he drew inspiration from, in my opinion that is. A good peice of absurdity is my kind of food, i eat up every loaf with great joy, and thoroughly lick the plate clean of each crumb.
@@joejs7659 I'm glad you enjoy and appreciate his work. I have read it. It's strong, but I don't connect with his point of view; plus, his images do little to stir me. Highly repetitive, too. Race tracks, despair, booze, racetracks, sad women, despair repeat... Most of it reads as superficial, to me. As goes the saying: different strokes for different cowpokes.
Esteban B Yea, electric fuck robots for hire(manifactured, and rented out by a ex-nazi barfly)...bottled Hitler beer that makes him shit out doppelgängers in the bathtub...The works! You don’t know what to get - circumstance wise - when you start on a book/novella/poem of his, but you know it’s within the field of crazed despair, and the humor and absurdity within that scene.
That seems to be most parents. Choose willful ignorance over responsibility and call in benevolence, because responsibility as a parent requires constant attention and careful discipline.
I thought too highly about it before reading ,but found it trivial.Just trying too hard with various contrived incidents and philosophizing.Over written what they call I think.
Philip Roth mostly writes sensationalistic Jewish paranoid filler where everyone is out to get the Jews (not to mention Jewish facination/distaste for the "shiksa").
