Even decades later, it's difficult for America to fully escape the image of its former glory. The protagonist of Philip Roth's "American Pastoral" is the ideal citizen. He did everything right. He was a renowned high school athlete who married the prom queen. Everything was working in his favor, down to his career focusing on assembling gloves. If this were the 1950s, there's a good chance that this would be the picture-perfect vision of a happy life. However, there is one caveat to his image. His daughter is an anarchist who defies the definition of patriotism. Over the couse of a taught little novel, Roth finds the deeper meaning of the American dream and how the image of post-war suburbia isn't what it seems. Somewhere in the happy faces is a reality that's hard to fully explain. By the 1960s, America was at a crossroads, and the youth were ready to fight back. Who will win? Who is right?
The best part of reading a Roth novel is how rooted his voice is in an era. He is very much a Jewish man who came of age during the early 20th century and, as a result, shares certain values with his characters. He believes in hard work and community. The amount of time he spends talking about assembling a glove feels less self-indulgent and more like a career being handed down. There is this sense of legacy that connects him to an old America, and one that will change before the halfway mark of the tale. He is a man whose hard work earns him that enviable reputation. His gift for finding metaphors between craft and America's efficiency helps to build a sense of identity where the only conflict is getting orders done on time.
Another great tool that Roth features is his ability to slowly warp the text as his life falls apart. Even as the literal narrative shifts towards constant arguments and division, the subtextual nature of the paragraphs becomes less focused. More mistakes and covering up self-doubt create a masterful study of a disillusioned man. He feels trapped in the situation he's created and it results in one of the most shocking narratives of its kind. As a commentary on the youth's response to the late 60s, it feels explosive, turning the mundane into something that feels increasingly hollow even as Roth attempts to hold onto the good-natured approach to citizenship. Even then, the paradoxical nature of raising a criminal isn't something that sits well with his public image. How did someone who lead his school to victory lose control?
"American Pastoral" is a story about the loss of innocence that fully achieves that moral shift between the two halves of the 20th century. Whereas things begin with naivety, Roth can't help but reflect reality changing the courses of his life. If this has gone wrong, what else is he hiding from the general public? To control the narrative, he fails to convince the reader that he was pure. More questions about his character may never be answered. He is a perplexing figure who perfectly embodies an America that contradicts the feel-good narrative that people have been old. Roth knows how to dig into the hubris and emotional depths of a stubborn, likely misogynistic, man who thinks he's done everything right, but finds that on an intimate level, he failed at the one thing that will outlive him.
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