Alexander, Edward, “Philip Roth at Century's End,” in New England Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring 1999, pp. 183-90.

Alexander, a neoconservative, regards the novel as a critique of the radical New Left of the 1960s, which became fascinated by violence. Merry is an embodiment of their naïve political creed.

Gentry, Marshall Bruce, “Newark Maid Feminism in Philip Roth's American Pastoral,” in Turning Up the Flame: Philip Roth's Later Novels, edited by Jay L. Halio and Ben Siegel, University of Delaware Press, 2005, pp. 160-71; originally published in Shofar, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2000, pp. 74-83.

Gentry argues that far from being the wronged, innocent man, Swede is himself responsible for his own troubles. He accepts the injustices of capitalism, he tries to mold Dawn and Merry into conventional gender roles, and he does not think for himself.

Gordon, Andrew, “The Critique of Utopia in Philip Roth's The Counterlife...