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American Pastoral, American Berserk

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. Forcing us to ask, at what level does the malaise lie? Does responsibility lie with the person, with the family or with the communities and societies?

The veiled nature of barbarism in American society is a constant subtext of this novel. The analogy is present in the Swede's glove-making business, where the slaughter, butchery, and stench of the tannery is never far from the artistry and craft of the workshop. This is a constant theme: the hidden violence in American Pastoral, the flip side, the American Berserk.

Roth beautifully parodies the poverty of analysis offered by psychiatry. The psychobabble of the invented pathology and the hubris with which it is placed in the relationship between mother and child. Creating one of the few scenes in which we see the Swede become angry.

It may be because Merry is so well loved, so sensitive to the needs of others and the reality of the injustices that they experience that she cannot remain silent. Is Merry healthy and society sick?

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