Philip Roth1

American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, an all-around good guy whose life is ruined by the "indigenous American berzerk". The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was included in All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels. The film rights to it were later optioned by Paramount Pictures. In 2006, it was one of the runners' up in the "What is the Greatest Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 years?" contest held by the New York Times Book Review. The framing device employed in American Pastoral is a 45th high school reunion attended by frequent Roth alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman. There he meets former-classmate Jerry Levov ("Swede" Levov's younger brother) who describes to him the tragic course of Seymour's adult life. The rest of the story consists of Zuckerman's posthumous recreation of Seymour Levov's story, based upon Jerry's testimony, a few newspaper clippings and Zuckerman's own impressions after two brief run-ins with "the Swede" towards the end of Levov's life. In these two run-ins we learn that Seymour has remarried, has three young children - while the daughter Merry, from his first marriage, - the one who ruined his previous life - is not mentioned. In Zuckerman's reimagining of Seymour's life this second marriage has no part; it ends in 1974 with Watergate unrolling on TV while the previous lives of all protagonists completely fall apart.