Ok, I admit I had to do a dictionary search on the word "pastoral." I was hoping that if I understood what the title was trying to betray that it would be more likely that I would understand the point of the book. So, "pastoral" is referring to a simple, idyllic life. I gather then that Roth is trying to show a contradiction of the view of American life as simple and idyllic. I get it, but why was the book so uninteresting. Maybe the contradiction was not strong enough. I believe the problem stems from the fact that the story really doesn't have a plot, so we are rolling around where there is no real conflict point or destination to our reading. If I got the point in a simple dictionary search and that point was not expanded by the story then all I needed from this book was the cover. The cover is pretty cool so I will give it 5 stars, too bad the story got in the middle of it.