Bedsit, with three clowns, and a rottweiler

This is a beautiful book, rendered in exquisite prose. If all of life is light and shadow, then American Pastoral shies neither from the light nor the shadow. It shows us unconditional parental love and the callous indifference of our societies at large. It takes a cold hard look at the essential contradictions in American society, and in doing so, is an essential autopsy of the American Dream. The central theme I took from the novel is that it asks what went wrong? How can our loved ones be capable of such terrible things? However, unlike other novels that have asked similar questions, I am thinking of 'We need to talk about Kevin’. by Lionel Shriver. Roth considers the interesting angle of having a familial relationship as almost entirely loving. With parents painstakingly, human, even superhuman. And yet, these horrors still enters their lives. Leaving us to wonder what causes this to go wrong. Roth shows how the political is personal, brushing your teeth is political...