The Plot Against America

by Philip Roth

the anti-Semites were about to be abetted in their exhilarating solution to America’s worst problem by our taking up the cudgels and hysterically destroying ourselves. The horror ended with Mr. Cucuzza, in his nightshirt and his nightcap (attire I’d never before seen on anyone, man or boy, other than in a funny movie), crashing into our flat with his pistol drawn. A frantic wail rose from Joey’s Old World grandmother, appropriately swathed like the Calabrian Queen of the Shades at the foot of our landing—and from within our own flat came a noise equally hair-raising the instant the splintered back door flew open and my mother saw that the nightshirted intruder was armed. Minna began bringing up into her hands everything she’d just swallowed at dinner, I couldn’t help myself and promptly urinated, while Sandy, who alone among us was able to find the right words and the vocal strength to utter them, cried, “Don’t shoot! It’s Alvin!” But Mr. Cucuzza was a professional guardian of private property trained to act now and draw distinctions later and—without pausing to ask “Who’s Alvin?”—immobilized my father’s assailant in a strangulating half nelson with one arm while holding the pistol to his head with the hand of the other. Alvin’s prosthesis had cracked in two, his stump was torn to shreds, and one of his wrists was broken. Three of my father’s front teeth were shattered, two ribs were fractured, a gash was opened along his right cheekbone that had to be sutured with almost ...