Check out my review of Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America"

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Plot Against America The master strikes again! Except for the rushed and somewhat preposterous ending (which made me downgrade the rating from 5 to 4), this is a fascinating book that wrestles with a scary hypothesis: What would have happened to our country in the early 1940s if Roosevelt had lost re-election to someone like Charles Lindbergh, the iconic aviation hero who was also an unregenerate Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite? Roth alters history by constructing an alternative reality highly reminiscent of what German Jews experienced after Hitler was elected Chancellor. Instead of concentration camps, Roth's apocalypse is one in which the federal government begins instituting programs under the guise of helping Jews better ease into mainstream society; in reality, it's all a ruse designed to further marginalize Jews and set them apart as pariahs.

That's made ominously clear when the Roth family (Roth cleverly uses his own family in the story) receives a federal order to "resettle" in a small town in Kentucky, presumably under the pretext of integrating them into the heartland where Jews are scant. However, it's just part of the newly elected administration's play to segregate Jews from the mainstream--again very similar to the early days of Nazi Germany after the Nuremburg laws, which promulgated the Third Reich's anti-Semitic policy, was enacted.

At first, Sandy, Philip's brother, falls under the seductive sway of the new administration. At the prodding of an aunt who gets involved with and later marries a high-profile rabbi, an ambitious opportunist who successfully ingratiates himself with the new government by betraying his own people, Sandy participates in a program for Jewish youth that sends them to live one summer with a family in the heartland. Supposedly, the program is all about Jewish youth learning a different way of life--in Sandy's instance, it's about farming. But the true purpose of the program--to alienate Jewish youth from their families--is far more insidious. Philip's father Herman, the most moving and heroic character in the book, sees through the charade and doesn't hesitate to voice his protest.

One of my favorite sections is early in the book when Herman takes his family to a trip to Washington, D.C. There in our nation's capitol, the Roth family experiences anti-Semitism in all its unpalatable glory. After being squired around all day by an highly erudite tour guide, whose encyclopedic knowledge of history is rivaled by his unflappable calm and even-keeled manner, the family goes back to their hotel only to find themselves summarily ejected after the establishment realizes their guests are Jewish. Of course, the hotel comes up with some lame excuse as to why they can no longer accommodate the Roths. Again, Herman, the book's unapologetic truthsayer, sees through the ugly subterfuge and rightfully blasts the hotel brass for it.

It's a very chilling reminder of the dark side in our modern history. Yes, this episode might be fictionalized but if you read about 20th century U.S. history and scour old newspaper archives (look at old job or housing ads seeking "good Christians"), you'll see there's a lot of factual evidence underlying it.

Although the conclusion seems a bit tacked-on and haphazard, almost as if Roth was getting tired of telling the story and wanted to cut it short, the writing is brilliant, superbly nuanced and evocative. It paints a vivid, three-dimensional portrait of a nightmarish America that could have easily happened but thankfully did not. Well done, even with the flawed ending.





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