Rating: 
Summary: Stream of consciousness drivel
Review: I finished this book and I'm not proud of it. The repetitive nonsense hammered over and over never is justified by any resolution. Why start the book with Zuckerman only to drop him? How dissatisfying to learn about so many characters with no resolution of any conflict. The story is told from the point of view of the Swede's obsessed mind. Are we to believe that he recovers and starts a new (normal) family. What a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Powerful and compassionate novel.
Review: In this fine novel of ideas Roth shows us the pain that often lies beneath the veneer of our affluant suburban lives. The The Swede is a noble tragic figure, almost shakesperian in depth, and by the end of the book sensative readers will care about him, and, maybe, weep. Roth understands, and shows, the arbitrary randomness and banality of evil. His book is one of the best I have read in many years.
Rating: 
Summary: One Long Whine
Review: Phillip Roth is my literary Dick Nixon: the man I love to hate. Whoever it is, the real author or the persona, the guy keeps dragging me in to hear his agonized, self-involved, masturbatory whining, book after book after book."American Pastoral" purports to be a step away from all that. Roth's alter ego, Zuckerman, makes his entrance, and then relinquishes the stage to yet another Jewish main man from Newark, but one who, believe it or not, is a star athlete with blond hair, known to one and all as "Swede." But, wouldn't you know it, you can't take the neighborhood from the boy. Although punctuated by by a string of gratuitous crises, "American Pastoral" is basically one long whine. The maddening fact remains that Roth is a fine writer. And he even puts this talent to good use with his loving and detailed descriptions of the golden age of glovemaking. He should have written an essay or novella on this subject and skipped the rest of the Swede's sorry life.
Rating: 
Summary: A slow, diappointing book, though vivid at time
Review: In picking up American Pastoral, I was hoping to understand why Roth is one of my father's favorite authors (likely because of their similar backgrounds and ages). Though beautifully written at times, the story dragged on and on with little structure to hint to the reader where the story was going. I appreciate Roth's revere for facts, but Lord help me if I ever have to learn about glovemaking again! All in all, not worth the time. But one final question: How did the Swede get past all of this and manage to remarry and raise 3 normal sons? Maybe I need such inferences spoon-fed to me, but I was left really hungry to hear how the Swede ended up at Victor's eating baked ziti with Zuckerman.
Rating:
Summary: Zuckerman The Omniscient?
Review: American Pastoral was only the second Phillip Roth book for me (the first one being Portnoy's Complaint) so I was not familiar with the Zuckerman character. During the book's first 89 pages Zuckerman struck me as broadly entertaining, intellegent and provocative The problem is that he disappears after page 89 and never returns in the novel's 423 pages. The problem here, other that introducing an interesting character only to quickly dismiss him, is that what happens after page 89 is purported to be Zuckerman's rendition of the life of the Sweed, including the Sweed's innermost thoughts about everything. After page 89 the novel is written from the point of view of an omniscient third party and yet the first 89 pages essentially justify why Zuckerman chooses to write about the Sweed. I realize fiction sometimes requires a suspension of disbelief but this is too much. It's irritating and unnecessariy. Zuckerman is superfluous to the Sweed's story.
Rating:
Summary: If life is arbitrary, what's the striving for?
Review: If for no other reason, the high writing style makes Phillip Roth's novel worth reading. American Pastoral reaches great literary heights and is deserving of critics' acclaim. It is, however, a book that lacks hope. Swede and Dawn Levov were the current day Ken and Barbie. Through their tidy lives, they had attained the American dream. Hard work, discipline, beauty and charity made them the envy of their community. They had stayed between the lines all their lives, and it seemed to pay off. That is, until their only daughter desecrated their idyllic existence by committing unspeakable crimes. Her actions entered the plot in an almost random manner. And, perhaps, that's the very message of Roth's novel ... that life is random and unfair. Further, there is no meaning behind the meaning. In this respect, his premise is both painful and depressing. If life is indeed arbitrary, then what's the striving for? Roth leaves the reader searching and asking his or her own questions about the banality of life. He pokes literary holes in those who construct a pastoral facade to hide their inner turmoil.
Rating:
Summary: I Agree - It Stinks - What's all the Acclaim About?
Review: This book was a total waste of time. It was hard to tell whether this guy was daydreaming or something was really happening. I read it to the bitter end, thinking there had to be some point - but I was wrong. What a sad, sad story and what a total waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This book is too old, too male, too white and too long... It examines in excrutiating detail all trivial issues and neglects the interesting and important ones. The story goes nowhere fast and keeps sinking after you've finished.
Rating:
Summary: it stinks!!!
Review: This story and character is too old, too white and too male... It doesn't go anywhere, but down... Leaving out the good parts and ruminating over the trivial parts of the main character's life, the book was a train going nowhere...
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing, Well worth the time.
Review: Philllip Roth has truly written a masterpiece. His amazing charators, and story, are definatly deserving of the award he received for this book. The Swede just doesn't end up being what you think he is. The last 100 pages of this book, make the entire read worth it.
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