In
his latest novel, Roth shows his age. Not that his writing is any less
vigorous and supple. But in this autumnal tome, he is definitely in a
reflective mood, looking backward. As the book opens, Roth's alter ego,
Nathan Zuckerman, recalls an innocent time when golden boy Seymour "the
Swede" Levov was the pride of his Jewish neighborhood. Then, in precise,
painful, perfectly rendered detail, he shows how the Swede's life did
not turn out as gloriously as expected?how it was, in fact, devastated
by a child's violent act. When Merry Levov blew up her quaint little
town's post office to protest the Viet Nam war, she didn't just kill
passing physician Fred Conlon, she shattered the ties that bound her to
her worshipful father. Merry disappears, then eventually reappears as a
stick-thin Jain living in sacred povery in Newark, having killed three
more people for the cause. Roth doesn't tell the whole story blow by
blow but gives us the essentials in luminous, overlapping bits. In the
end, the book positively resonates with the anguish of a father who has
utterly lost his daughter. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
