American Pastoral (1997)

In this ambitious, irresistible, and compassionate novel, American Pastoral — which ranks next to Portnoy's Complaint as one of Philip Roth's finest works to date — alter ego Nathan Zuckerman re-creates the life of ''Swede'' Levov, a sports hero and model citizen. A manufacturer of gloves, he loves everything about America: its size, its material splendor, its capacity for engendering happiness. But his dream of an American pastoral — a farm, cows, marriage to Miss New Jersey '49 — is exploded in the turbulent '60s by his beloved daughter, a girl who repays his love with the murder of four innocent people. Roth beautifully encapsulates the rise and fall of Newark and the end of American innocence. A

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