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American Pastoral
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American Pastoral (1997) (edit title/settings)

by Philip Roth (Author) (edit contributors)

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As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Yes, alone we are, deeply alone, and always, in store for us, a layer of loneliness even deeper. There is nothing we can do to dispose of that. No, loneliness shouldn't surprise us, as astonishing to experience as it may be. You can try turning yourself inside out, but all you are then is inside out and lonely instead of inside in and lonely. (...) It's lonely if there are buildings and it's lonely if there are no buildings. There is no protest to be lodged against loneliness - not all the ombing campaigns in history have made a dent in it. The most lethal of manmade explosives can't touch it. Stand in awe not of Communism, my idiot child, but of ordinary, everyday loneliness.”
    Swede
  • “He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.”
  • “Even a monster has to be from somewhere--even a monster needs parents.”
  • “Life is just a short period of time in which you are alive.”

First Sentence edit see section history

The Swede. During the war years, when I was still a grade school boy, this was a magical name in our Newark neighborhood, even to adults just a generation removed from the city's old Prince Street ghetto and not yet so flawlessly Americanized as to be bowled over by the prowess of a high school athlete.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Paradise Remembered
The Fall
Paradise Lost

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1998 of 85 in Pulitzer Prize Winners - Fiction. (authoritative list)
This is book 2 of 20 in New York Times Best American Fiction 1981-2006. (authoritative list)
This book is in TIME Magazine Top 100 English-Language Novels. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 148 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Philip Roth (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Country: United States
Publication Date: May 12, 1997
ISBN: 0395860210
Page Count: 423

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