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Violet wells's Reviews > American Pastoral
American Pastoral
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Should be a five star book and would have been with a good editor. As it stands Roth’s self-pleasuring digressions, his pedantic cataloging of sideshow detail kept spoiling it for me. Still a brilliant achievement but there were times when I wished Saul Bellow had written it.
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American Pastoral.
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Reading Progress
July 26, 2014
–
Started Reading
July 26, 2014
– Shelved
August 8, 2014
–
Finished Reading
November 5, 2015
– Shelved as:
contemporary-american-fiction
April 13, 2016
– Shelved as:
pulitzer
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
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Robin
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rated it 3 stars
Jan 27, 2017 06:49AM
Totally agree with your assessment, Violet. Had it been shorn down to its brilliant core, it would have been a five star read for me too.
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Robin wrote: "Totally agree with your assessment, Violet. Had it been shorn down to its brilliant core, it would have been a five star read for me too."I can't remember why i didn't write about this in more detail but I see you've done the job for me.
Yep, I do miss him. But I respect him for it, too, Elyse. Most writers probably write too many books. I especially felt that while reading Jane Smiley's Some Luck. I've still got a few of Roth's books I haven't read as well.
Ewan McGregor took a lot of unfair criticism for adapting this, (they probably didn't like a Scot taking on an American novel through and through). As directorial debuts go though, at least he had the guts to make a film most thought was unfilmable. And I agree about Roth's sideshow detail, just how much does one need to know about the process of making women's gloves?.
Steven wrote: "Ewan McGregor took a lot of unfair criticism for adapting this, (they probably didn't like a Scot taking on an American novel through and through). As directorial debuts go though, at least he had ..."I didn't know about the film. I'd like to see that.
Love the notion of Bellow writing it. That's a foxhole.
it was an unsettling read thats lurked inside me, infiltrating my consciousness. like Toni Morrison, Roth's work resonates & ripples for years; Nathan Zuckerman's misogyny is on full display in American Pastoral. The elegiac glove descriptions are so precise & haunting!
I agree with your review. Which Saul Bellow to start with?
That "Saul Bellow" line in your review is Gold.
