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Cover of American Pastoral by Philip RothAmerican Pastoral
Modern · Fiction, Classics, History

American Pastoral

by Philip Roth
1997 · 434 pages · Fiction
73.3Must-Read
Score Modern
Critics' pick
≈ 11 hours to read · about 3 weeks at 30 minutes a day

What it's about

Seymour 'Swede' Levov was a golden boy: a star athlete in Jewish Newark who married a beauty queen, took over his father's glove factory and moved to a farmhouse in the country. Then, in 1968, his teenage daughter Merry set off a bomb in protest against the Vietnam War, killing a man, and disappeared. The writer Nathan Zuckerman reimagines how the Swede's perfect life came apart.

Why it's worth reading

It won the Pulitzer Prize and is on TIME's list of the best novels. It's Roth's great novel about the American dream and the 1960s turning against it.

You'll love it if you liked

Cover of The Corrections by Jonathan FranzenThe Corrections
The CorrectionsJonathan Franzen
Cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldThe Great Gatsby
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald

Good to know

The narrator steps back after the opening, and the story is his reconstruction. There are long passages on glove-making. It includes violence and sexual content.

By the numbers

73.3Must-Read Score
  • Readers33 out of 100 · counts 42%
  • Critics90 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
  • Bestseller23 out of 100 · counts 14%
  • Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%

Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.

Where it ranks

Why it made the list

Won
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (1998)
Shortlisted
NBCC Award (Fiction) finalist (1997)
On the lists
TIME All-TIME 100 Novels

Reads as

Moving, Thought-provoking

How we rank

Already read it? Upload your Goodreads or StoryGraph history and get the 50 best books you haven't read, tuned to your taste.Get my 50

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Explore the best-of lists

All 36 best-of lists →
Modern booksTop 25 · 1,573 rankedBooks of the 1990sTop 25 · 273 rankedFantasy booksTop 25 · 459 rankedMysteries and thrillersTop 25 · 555 rankedLiterary novelsTop 25 · 309 rankedMemoirs and biographiesTop 25 · 290 rankedScience fiction booksTop 25 · 313 rankedRomancesTop 25 · 233 ranked

Quick answers

Is American Pastoral worth reading?

Yes. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is on TIME's list of the best novels. It ranks #966 of the 2,816 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 73.3 (the best book we found scores 99).

What is American Pastoral about?

Seymour 'Swede' Levov was a golden boy: a star athlete in Jewish Newark who married a beauty queen, took over his father's glove factory and moved to a farmhouse in the country. Then, in 1968, his teenage daughter Merry set off a bomb in protest against the Vietnam War, killing a man, and disappeared. The writer Nathan Zuckerman reimagines how the Swede's perfect life came apart.

How long does it take to read American Pastoral?

About 11 hours (434 pages), or about 3 weeks at 30 minutes a day.

What awards has American Pastoral won?

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (1998).

What should I read after American Pastoral?

If you liked it, try The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen or The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.