Posted by Sterling on 2/2/2011, 20:49:33, in reply to "Re: Some Recent Reading"
98.71.102.4
Boy, that was a conversation stopper! Sorry, guys.
--Previous Message--
: OK, maybe not right-wing (though it reads that way),
: because Roth apparently has his liberal bona fides.
: Maybe it's generational. A Greatest Generation/Silent
: Generation guy expressing his loathing for Boomers.
: (Which kind of figures since Boomers apparently loathe
: themselves and eagerly accept the scorn of both older
: and younger generations.)
:
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:
: --Previous Message--
: I really have never read Roth, so a year or two ago, I
: tried American Pastoral, under the impression that it
: is one of his best. It was a real effort to get
: through. The book's structure is very awkward, in my
: opinion. It starts out reasonably interesting with
: Zuckerman, but the opening turns out to be totally
: irrelevant. The story then turns to the Swede and is
: mostly deadly dull with much detail about making
: gloves. There were a few striking and memorable
: scenes, but overall, I pretty much hated it.
:
: I also found it to be reactionary and full of hatred
: for the war protesters of the 1960's. Although I have
: never advocated violence, the narrow, dismissive, ugly
: tone was pretty offensive. If someone unfamiliar with
: the Sixties read this novel, they would believe that
: the Vietnam war protests were carried out by obnoxious
: poseurs and dumb clueless kids. The fact that most of
: the protests to the Vietnam War were peaceful is
: ignored. The horrors of the war the protester
: attempted to stop are ignored. What a right-wing
: jerk!
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
:
: The only Roth book I read is Human Stain and I did not
: like it at all. Just all the things that were
: happening did not make any sense to me. I thought the
: professor and the garbage cleaner's love affair was
: not realistic. I also thought that the book was
: written with a movie in mind, and sure enough there
: was a movie, which I disliked even more than the book.
: I would like to try an earlier novel by Roth but I am
: a little scared.
:
: Lale
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