SOURCE: "Terrorism, the Perfect Choice," in The Spectator, Vol. 278, No. 8809, May 31, 1997, pp. 36-7.

[In the following review Hensher analyzes Roth's depictions of terrorism and the theme of betrayal in the novel American Pastoral.]

It is surprising, in a way, that more novelists haven't taken to the subject of terrorism. Few people are killed by terrorists; fewer feel sufficient attachment to any cause to take up violence. But the rise of nationalist groups in Western societies and of tiny cells devoted to some abstract political cause has changed the way many of us live our lives. The Red Army Faction in Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy, the Weathermen in America had an influence on the shape of society, on how society feels about itself, quite out of proportion to their aims and the size of their operation.

But few novelists have really tried to understand the commitment of...