American Pastoral, part 2: The Indigenous American Berserk

Wrapping up our discussion of Philip Roth's American Pastoral, in which the Swede is finally reunited with his missing daughter. it's bleak.

On losing your daughter: Can you save people from themselves? Should the Swede have dragged Merry out by the hair? Did he do anything wrong, or is he torturing himself for nothing?

The American berserk: Was '60s counterculture violence a freak aberration, or just a manifestation of the undercurrent that lies beneath the pastoral dream? Is Roth an old man shaking his fist at clouds? Or is he making a clever point about the obliviousness of those who live behind white picket fences?

Plus: Roth vs Dostoevsky, in praise of blue-haired activist types, and the problem of assimilation.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) Roth vs Dostoevsky
(00:10:00) Merry's motivations and lack of interiority
(00:16:52) Coercing loved ones to save them from themselves
(00:23:53) Champagne socialists are good akshully
(00:26:20) Violence in america always has been meme
(00:40:25) Roth's pessimism about assimilation
(00:45:20) Roth's pessimism about knowing your fellow man
(00:55:10) next book(s) announcement

 

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NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

• The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin
• Cathedral — Raymond Carver