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"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 Americaexplores 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
Casting the plot... I read in an interview with Philip Roth last year that "The Plot Against America" was not intended specifically as a reaction to the policies of the Bush administration. Indeed, as this literary alternate history places an isolationist candidate in the White House, displacing an immensely popular sitting president, I would not be surprised if somewhere in the conservative media there existed a blog post comparing Charles Lindbergh to the would-be John Kerry presidency.
I found myself casting "Plot" with a set of names from the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Here's what I came up with, see if you can do better:
Walter Winchell -- Al Franken Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf -- Ed Koch Vice President Burton Wheeler -- Zell Miller
In those three roles -- the muckraking broadcaster; the Jewish figurehead "koshering" Lindbergh's polices for the masses; and the old-school Democrat switching allegiances -- you can seamlessly turn "The Plot Against America" into a cutting edge political allegory. Even though it is not.
The reason this novel works is because it does not just describe the practices of a bad Administration attempting to roll back two centuries of American democracy. It works rather because it's told from the point of view of a child who is at that magical age where he is only just learning what it means to be an American, through his stamp collection and the exploits of his athletic older brother. Chapter by well structured chapter, an older Philip Roth as narrator unveils one subversive Lindbergh policy after another (cultural integration, followed finally by electoral gerrymandering via forced relocation), and how each one in turn worked to disintegrate his working-class Jewish family -- his older cousin the political firebrand; his brother the aspiring tobacco farmer who is taught to eat pork in Kentucky; and finally his father, the working dad who watches everyone he knows, one by one, embraces Lindbergh's regime. Roth muses about his the nature of his own Judaism, and how it does not mean what Lindbergh thought it meant. Finally, the younger Roth makes a bad judgment call about a school friend at a weak moment, and personal tragedy ensues.
I agree with other reviewers that the final moments of Lindbergh's presidency are a little over the top. For one thing, no explanation is given as to what happens to Lindbergh after his term ends. A very outlandish conspiracy theory is mooted, but that theory comes from a character who's clearly unhinged at that point, and I doubt that Roth meant it to be taken seriously. However, the madness that envelops America in those final moments is, unfortunately, believable and frightening.
In the end, "The Plot Against America" is an undeniably powerful novel that takes its time to boil over, but remains riveting on almost every page.
Liked it. Liked other Roth books better As a long-time lover of Philip Roth's books, I was a little surprised to find he'd written a book of political allegory. That's because there's a passage in I MARRIED A COMMUNIST that discusses and crystallizes in my mind the idea that art and politics are in opposition. So I bought the book and read it to find out what the deal was and though I enjoyed it, I do not think it is Roth's best. As for the politic overhang and how it relates to modern events, I take Roth at face value that this book is not a commentary on the Bush administration. I was up in the air on this point up until the end when Roth just makes the entire Lindbergh mess disappear with an off- handed, bizarre, Weekly World News like plotline. It's impossible to read the mind of the artist, but maybe he did this because he realized at the end that this book was less about what happens to a country when its plunged into chaos and more about what happens to people and families, the characters in a book, when they face their own personal chaos. That's where the heart of the book is, in the characters. I think the author knew that. Most of the political threads end in an off-handed way. Sandy, with all his Just Folks venom, fades when he discovers girls. Aunt Evelyn and the Rabbi leave when Mr. Roth makes them and though the Rabbi makes a play for revenge, he doesn't follow through. This goes on, from Alvin to Walter Winchell to Philip's uncle to the friend who leaves for Canada and on. The political conflicts are dropped one by one with minimal explanation or enlightenment. At the end, Roth saves enlightenment for the characters, mostly Philip, his mother and Seldon. Philip's mother becomes the hero. The focus is not on what has happened politically, but on how an ordinary woman trying to live an ordinary life is able to keep fighting through it all. In this way, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA is not unlike other recent Roth books, not unlike any good book really. The plot device (in this case Lindbergh) puts the characters into the crucible, but the device fades at the end when it comes time for the characters to rise or fall and bring meaning to what the author has done. That's not to say that present politics don't impact the way we view the world. It does and current opinion does seep into our literature. There is a heightened sense of paranoia in America 2004 and you do sense it in this book. I just don't think it's the point of the book. A book is a long and involved thing. Who knows when Roth started THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA or when the idea of a Lindbergh presidency first crossed his mind. The completion of the book and its release date are timely. They make you think of the present climate and I'm sure the present climate played a role in the writing, just not as much as some people would argue. All that said, this was a very good book, not great. If you enjoyed the books KITE RUNNER, J.T. McCrae's A TOUR OF SOUTHERN HOMES AND GARDENS, or the novel THE ANATOMY LESSON, then PLOT will be the book for you."Fatherland" better as Nazi alternate histories go; still worth your time As alternate histories of the Nazis go, Robert Harris' exquisitely envisioned "Fatherland" is a better read than "The Plot Against America." That said, Roth's book is a compellingly good read...for about the first 300 pages. Then, it gets (out of the blue) pretty far out there in terms of far-fetched plot devices (this one is a doozy), the narrative goes confusingly out of time sequence for the first time (recounted month-by-month up to that point, we're suddenly launched a few months into the future and then just as suddenly jerked back to fill in the missing months...odd), and the book comes to a screeching halt at page 362 (paperback edition) with pretty much only one thing out a jumble of loose ends wrapped up.
While I was disappointed at the book's rather weak ending, I still felt it worth my time and money. I was especially impressed with the amount of scholarship Roth put into his very rich Postscript (in which he lays out the real histories of each of his main protagonists and presents the full text of a speech made by Charles Lindbergh three months prior to Peal Harbor). Also, the level of detail Roth puts into describing his family dynamics is breathtakingly rich. There's a whole world described there that's nothing short of fascinating.
