American Pastoral

Summary

Narrated by Roth's recurring alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, the novel revisits the life of Seymour "Swede" Levov, a star high school athlete and successful Newark glove manufacturer whose ordered suburban world is detonated when his teenage daughter commits an act of political violence during the Vietnam era. Roth uses the Swede's downfall to interrogate assimilation, postwar prosperity, and the upheavals of the 1960s. The book is a central work of his late-career engagement with American history.