I hesitate to say this book was hard work - that's not quite it, rather that it is (like all of Roth's books) very dense, and required for me at least, a very slow read to soak up the side-tracks, the backstories, the characters and their histories. I could really only read it in twenty minute bursts before taking a rest. It's like a rich venison stew - you don't need too much of it in one go, no matter how wonderful it is.

And at first when I got to the end, I turned the page and thought, 'is that it'? It does end very abruptly, but as I thought about it more, I realised how clever Roth had been, because we learn what happens to the Swede and his family at the beginning of the book when Skip meets him for dinner: the three sporty boys, no mention of Merry, and the photo of his wife who clearly isn't Dawn, and the death of his father, Lou.
www.clairefuller.co.uk

Oddly, the next book I picked up is A Head Full of Ghosts, also featuring a Merry. If American Pastoral is a venison stew, then my next book and its Merry is a burger and chips. (Sometimes desired, but eaten fast and forgotten.)