SOURCE: "Paradise Lost," in New York Review of Books, Vol. XLIV, No. 10, June 12, 1997, pp. 12-14.

[In the following review Hardwick briefly compares American Pastoral to several other works by Roth: Operation Shylock. The Anatomy Lesson, Portnoy's Complaint, and The Professor of Desire. She examinines the evolution of the character Nathan Zuckerman through the course of these novels.]

American Pastoral is Philip Roth's twentieth work of fiction—an accretion of creative energy, a yearly, or almost, place at the starting line of a marathon. But his is a one-man sprint with the signatures, the gestures, the deep breathing, and the repetitiveness, sometimes, of an obsessive talent. Roth has his themes, spurs to his virtuoso variations and star turns in triple time. His themes are Jews in the world, especially in Israel, Jews in the family, Jews in Newark (New Jersey); fame, vivid enough to occasion impostors (Operation Shylack); literature...