As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.在美国世纪即将令人不安地结束之际，菲利普·罗斯给了我们一部无与伦比的伟大小说，它是我们这个世纪繁荣、公民秩序和家庭幸福的所有承诺的挽歌。罗斯的主人公是瑞典人列沃夫，他是纽瓦克高中的一名传奇运动员，在蓬勃发展的战后岁月里长大，嫁给了一位前新泽西小姐，继承了父亲的手套厂，搬进了老里姆洛克田园诗般的小村庄的石头房子。1968年的一天，瑞典人美丽的美国运气抛弃了他，因为瑞典人敬爱的女儿梅里，已经从一个充满爱心、机智的女孩成长为一个闷闷不乐、狂热的青少年，一个能够做出离奇野蛮的政治恐怖行为的青少年。一夜之间，瑞典人被从长期的美国牧民变成了土著美国人的狂暴。这是罗斯的代表作，令人无法抗拒的可读性，被悲伤、愤怒和对人物的深切同情所驱使。