Historical Fiction · MelancholicAt a 1995 reunion, a writer learns about a Newark athlete's life and imagines the rest
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth
At a high school reunion, a writer hears about a classmate's life and imagines the rest
In 1995, the writer Nathan Zuckerman attends his 45th high school reunion in Newark. There his classmate Jerry Levov tells him about his older brother Seymour, known as Swede, a Jewish-American glove manufacturer and high school athlete who has just died. Using Jerry's account, newspaper clippings and two short meetings with Swede, Zuckerman imagines his life, in Newark and in the 1960s.
More about this book
Who
Seymour "Swede" Levov, a glove manufacturer and former school athlete from Newark, seen through the narrator Nathan Zuckerman and Swede's brother Jerry.
World
Newark, New Jersey, and the 1960s, during Lyndon Johnson's presidency, with a frame set in 1995.
What makes it different
It is Zuckerman's imagined reconstruction of another man's life. It is the first book of Roth's American Trilogy, followed by I Married a Communist and The Human Stain. It won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Feel
A serious, deliberate novel about family and a changing America.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Behind the book
Roth traveled to Gloversville, New York, to research the glove-making industry and interviewed Yolande Fox, the 1951 Miss America winner, while developing a character. The Swede was inspired by Seymour "Swede" Masin, a Newark athlete from Weequahic High School.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- American PastoralWikipedia