pulitzer prize winner 1998in american pastoral philip roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all the twentieth centurys promises of prosperity civic order and domestic bliss roths protagonist is seymour swede levova legendary high school athlete a devoted family man a hard worker the prosperous inheritor of his fathers newark glove factorycomes of age in thriving triumphant postwar america and then one day in 1968 swedes beautiful american luck deserts himfor swedes adored daughter merry has grown from a loving quickwitted girl into a sullen fanatical teenagera teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism and overnight swede is wrenched out of the longedfor american pastoral and into the indigenous american berserk compulsively readable propelled by sorrow rage and a deep compassion for its characters this is roths masterpiece