num_pages: 320
description: 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. 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.
language: English
title: When She Was Good
titlecomplete: When She Was Good
genres: Jewish, American, Americana, Literary Fiction, Novels, American Fiction, Literature, The United States Of America, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 3289
publisher: Vintage