47 pages • 1 hour read
Philip RothA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
As Zuckerman attempts to uncover the truth of the Swede’s life, it becomes clear that truly knowing another human being is impossible and that defining a person by a single truth is a fool’s errand. Zuckerman’s view of the Swede cannot help but be informed by his own youthful idol worship. To reconcile the broken older Swede—a man who succumbs to the all-too-human frailty of cancer—with the vital athletic hero is a daunting task. He attempts to reconstruct the Swede’s adult life piecemeal, through second-hand accounts from friends and relatives, wondering “whose guess is more rigorous than whose” (77). Even Jerry’s account varies over time. When the Swede calls him, distraught over Merry’s situation (her rape, her squalid living conditions), Jerry blasts his brother for his “artificial” life and for not knowing or truly loving his own daughter. Zuckerman is more ecumenical, suggesting that no parent can truly know their grown child. When Jerry and Zuckerman chat at the reunion, Jerry contradicts his earlier condemnation, saying, “My brother was the best you’re going to get in this country, by a long shot” (66).
The Swede’s struggle to understand his daughter proves fruitless. He wonders what could have driven a girl with all the advantages in life to commit such an act of violence, but none of his explanations—the stutter, that seemingly innocent kiss, the people she associated with—is wholly satisfying.
By Philip Roth
Defender Of The Faith
Philip Roth
Everyman
Philip Roth
Goodbye Columbus
Philip Roth
Indignation
Philip Roth
Operation Shylock: A Confession
Philip Roth
Patrimony
Philip Roth
Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth
Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
The Conversion of the Jews
Philip Roth
The Counterlife
Philip Roth
The Ghost Writer
Philip Roth
The Human Stain
Philip Roth
The Plot Against America
Philip Roth
Zuckerman Unbound
Philip Roth
American Literature
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Jewish American Literature
View Collection
National Book Critics Circle Award...
View Collection
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Awardees &...
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection