The New Canon: American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Part of: The New Canon

The New Canon is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on great works of fiction published since 1985. These books represent the finest literature of the current era, and are gaining recognition as the new classics of our time. In this installment of The New Canon, Gioia looks at American Pastoral by Philip Roth.

Sometimes even familiar writers can surprise you. Who would have predicted that Truman Capote, by then a quasi-comic presence on TV talk shows, would deliver such a poised and controlled masterpiece as In Cold Blood? Who would have believed that Ken Kesey would take a long enough break from hallucinogenic drugs and Merry Prankster-dom to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion? Who would have guessed that J.D. Salinger would live to the ripe age of 90, but stop publishing for the last 45 of those years?

And then there is the case of Philip Roth...

Most people sizing up Mr. Roth’s oeuvre at the time of his 40th birthday (back in 1973) would probably have pigeonholed him as a literary representative of the sexual revolution or perhaps as a connoisseur of taboo and quasi-neurotic strains in American life. Mr. Roth had just published The Breast, sort of a genitalia-ized alternative to Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, in which his protagonist turns into a large mammary gland. And his best known and biggest-selling book, Portnoy’s Complaint, did for onanism what Mario Puzo (author of the second best selling novel of 1969 behind Roth’s work) did for gangster stories.

Portnoy’s Complaint was banned in Australia and morphed into a punchline for jokes. When Dick Cavett quipped that one of his male guests needed to cancel his appearance on his show because “he was suffering from Portnoy’s complaint,” the network censors cut the witticism from the broadcast. In a memorable bon mot, Jacqueline Susann noted her interest in meeting Roth, but added: “I wouldn’t want to shake his hand.”

Yet by the time we get to American Pastoral (1997), a different side of Roth has apparently emerged. His protagonist here is the exact opposite of what we have come to expect in our Roth heroes. Seymour “Swede” Levov is a high school sports legend who has grown up to embody almost every aspect of the American dream. He is married to a former Miss New Jersey, operates a successful business, and comes across as a bastion of propriety and stability—almost a poster boy for happy and uncomplicated Jewish assimilation into the mainstream of American life.

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Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool.

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  • American Pastoral American Pastoral

    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. ...

Article comments

  • 1 - Rodney Welch

    Jan 20, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    I remember it being a very compelling novel, but I sure didn't find myself willing to put it in the same high company you do. Also, I thought he went overboard on the details regarding glove-making. Research is one thing, but there were passages that sounded copied from a manual.

  • 2 - Mary

    Jan 27, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    I heard a rumor that a book is coming out about Seymour "the Swede" Masin (the inspiration for Roth's Swede Levov). Does anyone know if this is true and if so, when it will be released?

  • 3 - Bob Masin

    Jan 29, 2009 at 10:35 am

    Mary, I recently completed writing a book about my father, Seymour "Swede" Masin. It is currently going through the editing process; the final product is probably a couple of months away.

    There is a common thread throughout the book about my father's growing up in Newark's Weequahic section, his extraordinary physical power and athleticism, combined with his genteel nature. There is a full chapter dedicated to the fun he had when American Pastoral was released, his meeting Philip Roth, and the attention he received. The book is entitled "SWEDE, Weequahic's Gentle Giant". Thanks, Bob Masin

  • 4 - howard moshinsky

    May 17, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    one must compliment PHIL ROTH on all the books he has given us in american pastoral he never wavered in following the line dont let the facts get in the way of the story

  • 5 - Howard Moshinsky

    Aug 05, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    BOB ITS HRE AT LAST THE BOOK YOU PROMISED US HE WAS THE HERO WHO LIVED IN THE 'shetl'
    CALLED WEEQUAHIC BUT WE SHOULD NOT LOSE THE LEGEND HE LEFT AT MONTCLAIR STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE REGARDING THE TRULY FANTASTIC YEARS AT PANZER WITH HIS FRIEND BELLEVILLES HERMAN KNUPPEL

    ALL THE BEST HOWARD MOSHINSKY

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