Books

May, 1997

By DIGBY DIEHLPHILIP ROTH'S American Pastoral (Hough-ton Mifflin) is a deeply moving novel that vividly captures the effects of the Vietnam war on American society. The rage, black humor and neuroticism in his previous novels are turned into artistry here. By examining the depths of one man's life against the backdrop of contemporary history, Roth achieves a masterpiece.The man is Seymour "Swede" Levov, a star athlete at Weequahic High School in Newark, New Jersey, class of 1945. Out o...

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