Cover of When She Was Good

When She Was Good

by Philip Roth · 1966

+ Want to read

In this funny and chilling novel, the setting is a small town in the 1940s Midwest, and the subject is the heart of a wounded and ferociously moralistic young woman, one of those implacable American moralists whose "goodness" is a terrible disease.

Read more

When she was still a child, Lucy Nelson had her alcoholic failure of a father thrown in jail. Ever since then she has been trying to reform the men around her, even if that ultimately means destroying herself in the process. With his unerring portraits of Lucy and her hapless, childlike husband, Roy, Roth has created an uncompromising work of fictional realism, a vision of provincial American piety, yearning, and discontent that is at once pitiless and compassionate.

Genre
literary fictionliterary fictionMore like thisLess of this
Setting
1960s1960sMore like thisLess of thisUSAUSAMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adultyoung adult
Length
medium · 320 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked When She Was Good? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked When She Was Good. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Ice In The Bedroom P.G. Wodehouse · 1961 Shares fiction, literature
  2. Roth Unbound Claudia Roth Pierpont · 2013 Shares roth, literary fiction, literature
  3. The Sportswriter Richard Ford · 1986 Shares fiction, literary fiction, american
  4. Francois Truffaut · 1998
See more recommendations →

“People who read When She Was Good tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Constance Ring Amalie Skram · 1885
  2. Look at the Harlequins! Vladimir Nabokov · 1974
  3. Roger's Version John Updike · 1986
  4. The Public Image Muriel Spark · 1968

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction), start with these.”

  1. A Bad Man Stanley Elkin · 1968
  2. Rabbit, Run John Updike · 1960
  3. Couples John Updike · 1968
  4. The Tin Can Tree Anne Tyler · 1965

“If it was the american that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Of the Farm John Updike · 1965
  2. Freedom Jonathan Franzen · 2010
  3. The Dream Life of Balso Snell Nathanael West · 1931
  4. Purity Jonathan Franzen · 2015

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. A Death on the Wolf G.M. Frazier · 2011
  2. Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father Steven W. Hackel · 2013
  3. The Outer Cape Patrick Dacey · 2017
  4. Incanta Soul-Catcher Avie Adams · 2014

Report a problem