American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Caught up in the Great American Read frenzy, one of my book groups decided to up the ante and read an old classic. Can't remember how the conversation lead us to this one.  Seymour Levov aka Swede was the high school hero of Newark, New Jersey before WWII.  He comes home after the war to marry Miss New Jersey and take over the family business.  All is well until his lovely daughter Merry gets sucked into the protests of the 60's with tragic consequences.  How do we know all this? Roth's favorite narrator, writer Nathan Zuckerman went to school with his brother, Jerry.  When they meet at a high school reunion, Jerry shares that life for the Swede has not gone so well.  When Swede gets in touch with Nathan and asks him to write a story about his father, the telling begins.  There is very little room for the reader's thoughts here because every possible internal dialog is shared.  More than I wanted to hear/read actually.  I think this book has been described as the modern Job story.  I get that.  It won the Pulitzer which I wonder about.  I also wonder if I am supposed to think that Swede is to blame for Merry's mistakes.  Or maybe all the people like Swede are to be blamed for the 60's. Guess I should go back and read Job.