American Pastoral - Philip Roth

About a third in to this book Zuckerman, Roth's alter ego, completely disappears into the life of Swede Levov, a paragon of post-war, post-religion America - born Jewish, he marries an Irish former Miss New Jersey and takes over his father's glove business and makes it more successful. He moves from the city to a rural paradise, complete with cows, stone houses that reek of history and the WASPy descendants of the men who created the country. Everything picture perfect, and a stark contrast to Zuckerman's life, who has no wife, no family. But, of course, nothing is perfect, for the Swede's only daughter joined the anti-Vietnam movement and planted a mailbox bomb in the rustic post office/general store that kills the local doctor who was dropping of his bills.

As a boy Zuckerman idolized the Swede but was always afraid to talk to him, even when Zuckerman came over to get beat at ping pong by the Swede's younger brother. Years later Swede writes Zuckerman a letter, asking if he might be interested in writing a story about his father. They meet for dinner and nothing comes of it, but it's after Zuckerman attends a high school reunion and talks to Swede's brother, now a successful cardiac surgeon in Miami who keeps divorcing and marrying his nurses, does bits of the story comes out. Of course Zuckerman was wrong about the idolized version of the Swede, just as wrong as he is about the fiction one he creates. We're always wrong, according to Roth:

''You get them wrong before you meet them,'' Zuckerman says of ''people'' in general, ''while you're anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you're with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again.''

Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan

The language saves this novel from the now conventional structure in which the ending is revealed at the beginning and the middle is spent getting back to the beginning. The Nazis are "boots", men are "jacks", women are "janes". Three black jazz musicians (two Americans, one African/German) make it out of Berlin to Paris, where they meet Louis Armstrong. They record the title track, which later becomes the subject of a documentary that brings all three characters back together. We know that the two Americans survive the Nazis, and about a third of the way in we know the German does as well, but getting to the end is worth the price on the ticket.

Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden

Two Cree, as close as brothers, go off to fight in the Great War. Both residential school survivors, one is talkative, the other silent. Their hunting skills come in handy in the war, but the war changes them. There is the expected racism and classism that are staples of stories about the First World War, but the two Cree gain respect for their ability to kill. The war story alternates with the story of Nishka, the wild Indian woman who lives in the bush and suffers from visions. When only one of the boys returns from the war, she takes him home, a three day journey in which they both tell their stories. The war details are gory and the ending somewhat predictable, but it's a good read nonetheless.