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The Plot Against America By Philip Roth ( Vintage )
Release Date: 2005-09-27
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Product Description
In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history.
In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected President. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh’s election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America–and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.
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Amazon.com Review
"What if" scenarios are often suspect. They are sometimes thinly veiled tales of the gospel according to the author, taking on the claustrophobic air of a personal fantasia that can't be shared. Such is not the case with Philip Roth's tour de force, The Plot Against America. It is a credible, fully-realized picture of what could happen anywhere, at any time, if the right people and circumstances come together. The Plot Against America explores a wholly imagined thesis and sees it through to the end: Charles A. Lindbergh defeats FDR for the Presidency in 1940. Lindbergh, the "Lone Eagle," captured the country's imagination by his solo Atlantic crossing in 1927 in the monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, then had the country's sympathy upon the kidnapping and murder of his young son. He was a true American hero: brave, modest, handsome, a patriot. According to some reliable sources, he was also a rabid isolationist, Nazi sympathizer, and a crypto-fascist. It is these latter attributes of Lindbergh that inform the novel. The story is framed in Roth's own family history: the family flat in Weequahic, the neighbors, his parents, Bess and Herman, his brother, Sandy and seven-year-old Philip. Jewishness is always the scrim through which Roth examines American contemporary culture. His detractors say that he sees persecution everywhere, that he is vigilant in "Keeping faith with the certainty of Jewish travail"; his less severe critics might cavil about his portrayal of Jewish mothers and his sexual obsession, but generally give him good marks, and his fans read every word he writes and heap honors upon him. This novel will engage and satisfy every camp. "Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear. Of course, no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews." This is the opening paragraph of the book, which sets the stage and tone for all that follows. Fear is palpable throughout; fear of things both real and imagined. A central event of the novel is the relocation effort made through the Office of American Absorption, a government program whereby Jews would be placed, family by family, across the nation, thereby breaking up their neighborhoods--ghettos--and removing them from each other and from any kind of ethnic solidarity. The impact this edict has on Philip and all around him is horrific and life-changing. Throughout the novel, Roth interweaves historical names such as Walter Winchell, who tries to run against Lindbergh. The twist at the end is more than surprising--it is positively ingenious. Roth has written a magnificent novel, arguably his best work in a long time. It is tempting to equate his scenario with current events, but resist, resist. Of course it is a cautionary tale, but, beyond that, it is a contribution to American letters by a man working at the top of his powers. --Valerie Ryan
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 Great . . . up until the end ( xcfgsdfg )
I bought this after hearing an interview with the author on NPR. I really liked it. Being a history-nerd, I was intrigued by the alternative-history aspect of Charles Lindbergh being president but that wasn't really the main point of the book.
TPAM is a deeper look into fear and prejudice, and how disasters can creep up on you one step at a time. As the main character and his family (who are lower-middle class Jews living in New Jersey) experience this rising tide of anti-Semitism I had to wonder: is this what is was like for Jews in Germany those early years? Did they, too, think that it would pass and things would somehow get back to normal? Did they have blind faith that their "German-ness" would protect them in spite of their being Jews?
TPAM was very interesting on several levels. My one major gripe (and the reason why I gave it only 4 stars) is that I think the ending was badly handled. I don't want to spoil it for anyone but the resolution seemed abrupt, contrived, and silly to the point of shattering the suspension of disbelief that Roth had worked so hard to create. Oh well...
Recommended.
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Gripping but disappointing ending ( steveh46@aol.com )
This a very good novel with a very disappointing ending.
I have no problem with the way Roth sets the novel up, using his own childhood and family as the main setting and characters. It makes the fictional elements seem real and historical to have them recounted through the memories of a child who was around 7 to 9 years old when the supposed events were occurring. As events unfold, the rise of Lindbergh, the gradually increasing pressure on Jewish-Americans, the sense of menace threatening his family, Roth exploits the tensions both within the family and from without. It's gripping, and then things go wrong.
I expect characters to be at least somewhat consistent and yet Roth simply changes 2 important characters without much explanation. First, Alvin returns from the war but is no longer the clever, politically charged person who chose to go fight fascism seeming to have lost all interest in politics. Second, Sandy, Roth's older brother and Lindbergh admirer and defender, enters puberty and seems to lose every opinion he has held against all pressure from his family. As he's proven wrong in everything he used to believe no one even makes a single comment to him nor does he acknowledge his errors.
But the worst thing is, after everything Lindbergh has done to change history, he simply disappears and everything turns out exactly as if he had never challenged Roosevelt and been elected President. Roosevelt returns to the White House, the US enters the war, the Axis is defeated and, seemingly, every post-war event proceeds to happen as though Lindbergh had never run for office.
Rabbi Bengelsdorf's explanation of events, Lindbergh being blackmailed into his electoral campaign by Nazis threatening his kidnapped son's life, seems ludicrous. It makes Lindbergh and his wife traitors to their country. It also may seem to reduce Lindbergh's moral culpability, though treason would not be worse than the anti-semitism and subversion of the Constitution that Lindbergh endorsed either willingly or under duress.
However, I still enjoyed the novel for Roth's vivid recreation of his family and Jewish life in Newark during the Depression and for its imaginative exploration of "it" happening here.
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 AS THE WORLD TURNS... ( lawyeraau )
I loved this book, as it was a wonderful melding of two genres, that of alternate history to that of family drama. Understandably, this book was touted as a New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year. It is as gripping as it is moving, and the best book that I have read by this author, no doubt influenced by his own experiences growing up. The narrator, through whose eyes we see events in the book unfold, even bears the author's name.
This is a look at an America from 1940 to 1942 through the memories of young Philip Roth who lives with his working class family in a Jewish enclave in Newark, New Jersey. All is well with the world, and his childhood seems to be otherwise unremarkable until Charles A. Lindbergh, `aviator extraordinaire and suspected Nazi sympathizer, decides to run for President against a bellicose Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Promising to keep the nation out of war, while FDR sees war as an eventuality, Lindbergh seizes the moment. His platform is simply that one has two choices. Vote for Lindbergh or vote for war. Given that choice, Americans vote overwhelmingly for Lindbergh. Once he becomes president, Lindbergh keeps his promise and keeps America out of war, reaching a detente with Hitler that allows Hitler to continue his world wide conquest without fear of reprisal from America.
For Philip Roth, however, the election of Lindbergh irrevocably changes his world, as there are signs that Lindbergh thinks that Jews are not quite American enough, and nation wide programs are established to begin a sort of resettlement of Jews in order to help integrate them into mainstream America. The Lindbergh presidency would have a great affect on Philip and his family, with collaboration and resistance taking place all around him. What happened in America under Lindbergh would parallel in small part what was going on with the Jews of Europe. In this alternate history, Walter Winchell would rise up on behalf of the Jews as a voice that would be heard and would not be silenced. Moreover, as to why Lindbergh would take America in this direction is explained in a surprising and astonishing ending
This is an interesting and though provoking cautionary tale that will keep the reader turning the pages. Well-written with memorable, well drawn characters and a plot that is riveting, it is a bold, brash book that simply demands to be read.
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 there wasn't a plot against America in this novel ( mungo_sd )
if this were written as a creative writing project it would get an F. As alternative history it isn't any better.
The plot of the title was mostly a conflict between 2 political parties. He did invent a plot against Jews that wasn't very believable. There certainly was no plot against America in general.
Since the book is partly based on Roth's childhood, he should have just written an autobiography. He could have added his fears of antisemitism.
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Interesting ( louisecph )
This book is fiction, although it has been written as a kind of a memoir. A memoir of a childhood in an America, where the hero Charles Lindbergh is president of the United States with connections to Hitler's Germany. It is fiction and it is about how the American jews were treated under the reign of Lindbergh. It is intense and it is written in a way leaving no doubt that Philip Roth can really write! At the same time, the language is compact and the reader has to get used to the style with the very long sentences before the reading really gets going.
The young boy Philip grows up in a Jewish neighborhood outside New York in the 1940's. He lives with his mother, father and older brother. Later in the story, his cousin moves in after having been to Europe fighting in WW 2.
Slowly it dawns on Philip that the world is much bigger than he thought and the even in his safe haven, USA, there are dangers for Jewish families, even though they are just minding their own business.
Lindberg and his borderline facist government is going to get a lot closer to Philip and his family than they had ever imagined and the reader witness how the family and the family ties slow disintegrate
The Plot Against America is first and foremost a story about a childhood being hit suddenly by a force, which the child is powerless against.
But even though this doesn't sound like much fun, this book is packed with humour which hits hard and is on the spot. It is not a book you read in one sitting on a rainy afternoon. There are way too many things to think about to be able to do that.
As an experiment, it is a great plot and it is quite scary to think about how the world would have looked today if any president of The United States had been in collaboration with Nazi Germany. Highly recommendable.
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