Book club, I miss you! I read the book this month and want to comment. Everyone else can skip this post.
I read American Pastoral in my first few days here, and it was evocative enough for me to ward off the twinge of homesickness I was feeling. I love the way Philip Roth writes the same way a curious and impulsive person explores a new city -- up one alley, down another, sidetracking for pages at a time, wandering down whatever path strikes his fancy at the moment. American Pastoral would be impossible to outline. I wonder whether the type of people who make detailed vacation itineraries when they travel to new cities would enjoy a wandering book like this?
I would need to read the book again to figure it out. When did Merry die? When did the Swede divorce, and how long until he got remarried and had children? I got the sense that you could figure out the chronologies if you had a pencil and paper.
I wish I could ask the book club what they thought of Jerry -- there were times when I identified with him and his hard-ass advice about Merry, and other times when I thought he came off as a prick. I'm also not sure whether I liked the Swede -- I wanted him to be more decisive. I wanted him to make a huge scene at the dinner party at the end. I was anticipating that scene with such excitement! I was really disappointed that he didn't do it. Yet I think I liked the Swede anyway. I liked him for the same reason Zuckerman liked him -- he was a very deep person who didn't congratulate himself on his own depth. He didn't wallow in it and rub everyone's face in it like Jerry. I always liked the phrase "still waters run deep," and the Swede embodied that.
I'm reading a biography of Ben Franklin, and I love one of his lines as Poor Richard: "Let all know you, but no one know you thoroughly. Men freely ford that see the shallows." I really agree with that, though I would change it to "let few know you thoroughly." And yes, I see the irony in posting that sentiment on a website where I chronicle my life. But I think the publisher Franklin would have
loved keeping a blog, and he wouldn't have bared his soul too deeply on it, any more than I would.
But back to the Swede: I like to imagine that the Swede made a big scene after the book ended, then went off and started another family and was happy. Book clubbers, I would be so thrilled if you would leave your comments below... Tell me what you talked about Sunday...
