My copy of American Pastoral by Philip Roth
I have on my to-read bookshelf another gem I picked up at a used book fair: American Pastoral by Philip Roth. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. While I have yet to read it, I know that it takes place in the midst of the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Here’s a quote from the dust jacket:
For the Swede is not allowed to stay forever blissful inside the beloved hundred-and-seventy-year-old stone farmhouse, in rural Old Rimrock, where he lives with his pretty wife –the college sweetheart who was Miss New Jersey of 1949–and the lively, precocious daughter who is the apple of his eye. The apple of his eye, that is, until she grows up to be a revolutionary terrorist bent on destroying her father’s paradise.
That’s some daughter, don’t you think? And as a gift, hmmm. I’m not sure this would be a good choice, particularly to a father. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a MORE inappropriate book for a daughter to give her father. (Except perhaps Lolita.) But Anna, dear Anna, did indeed give this to her Daddy. The inscription reads, “Dear Daddy, Happy Birthday! Love Anna.” I hope Daddy didn’t mind. 
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