American Pastoral

A book about generational conflict: a Jewish father who grew up in the US in the 1940s and his American daughter (daughter of a Jewish + Christian) who grew up in the US in the 1960s.

The book is told in the first person by Nathan Zuckerman, a young man who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Newark during World War II.

The local community was devastated by the events in Europe, but there was a figure who served as “encouragement”: the Swede.

The Swede is Seymour Levov, the main character in the story

Nathan studied with Jerry, the Swede's younger brother. Seymour was a star athlete and everyone admired him. He excelled in everything he did, getting people in his neighborhood to watch his games.

In Nathan's mind, the Swede was someone with the "perfect" life: the son of a glove manufacturer, the Swede inherited his father's business and made the factory expand greatly.

The Swede, like many people at the time, was very proud to be an American citizen.

Beginning in the 1950s, many American companies moved their factories to Asian countries to reduce labor costs.

Levov's gloves continued to be manufactured in the United States, employing many local workers for decades.

One day, around 1995, Nathan meets Sueco and the two talk. Sueco talks about his life in such a romantic way that it makes Nathan reaffirm what he had already thought: Sueco is someone who will never know frustration, because he married a beauty queen, went to live on a farm...

Shortly after this conversation, Swede, who was being treated for cancer, dies.

The one who gives Nathan the news is Jerry, Swede's brother, and it is Jerry who tells him that his brother's life was not as good as it seemed...

Swede had a daughter, Merry, who was the complete opposite of him.

The Swede grew up living the American dream: family, comfortable home, the business inherited from his father grew a lot and all his hard work was rewarded.

The US gave the Jews of Newark dignity and the right to live, something they valued after losing their families in the war.

The Swede excelled in all sports and his wife was beautiful. Merry, his daughter, grew up with a terrible stutter, in a very different social environment. She had seen the scene of the Buddhist monk burning (1963) as a form of protest against the war in Vietnam and it had an impact on her.

The scene was so intense that the girl talked about it for days.

Merry completely rebelled against the United States and the standard American way of life. She completely abhorred her family's lifestyle and began to reject her parents.

Despite years of treatment with therapists, Merry still stuttered and began to gain weight, becoming the opposite of her mother (a former beauty queen).

She felt even more different from the family and community she grew up in.

One day, Merry takes an action that changes her family forever.

(If I tell you what she did, it will be a spoiler. I don't want to ruin the experience)

Merry becomes a huge disappointment to her family and everyone gives up on her (in the sense of not wanting to have contact with her anymore), even her mother.

If I say anything else from now on, it will be a spoiler.

The book deals a lot with the issue of how everything suddenly became oppression. How come everyone suddenly wants to be a victim?