Philip Roth, American Pastoral

But first, a little plot summary: it is 1995 and Philip Roth’s narrating alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman, is a bit worse for the wear as he approaches old age. Left impotent and incontinent by prostate cancer, he reflects on his youth, particularly on the athletic hero of his Newark neighborhood during World War II: Seymour “Swede” Levov, so nicknamed because of his Aryan superman good looks. The Swede gets in touch with Zuckerman about the possibility of his writing a reminiscence for the Levov family, but the meeting comes to nothing and Zuckerman is left to assume that the godly superficial jock has coasted through a blessed life after his youthful athletic triumph, his inheritance of his father’s successful glove business, his marriage to Miss New Jersey of 1949, and his move to a bucolic stone house in the WASP enclave of Old Rimrock.