American Pastoral
"It is epic in that it encapsulates America in the 20th century," David Duchovny says of this Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel. The story, which takes place in the Jewish community of Newark,
New Jersey, in the era after WWII, examines the American dream as
pursued by a former high school star athlete. "The fact that it is set
in the Northeast and has to do with Jewish immigrants was resonant for
me; my father was a contemporary of Philip Roth and of similar
background," says Duchovny, a New York City native whose paternal
grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. "I recognize the
sensibility, the cultural associations, and the assimilation anxiety."
— As told to Karen Holt
