American Pastoral

“i'm doing a year of "boy books" (books whose primary subject is masculinity or that have come to be associated with dudes)...mostly out of curiosity, to fill a few gaps in my reading. american pastoral is my favorite so far. ambitious in a way i wish more contemporary american fiction could be (i'm tired of novels about new yorkers getting cheated on, sorry). a little heavy handed at times, but roth is brilliant so i'll give his self-indulgence a pass. i read portnoy's last year and had such a blast, which surprised me! i didn't think philip roth had anything to do with me, but i might be a little bit of a roth head now.”

“Hey so this is genuinely unbelievable.”