The Plot Against America : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Classic!
Review:
This is truly a wonderful surprise and the second best purchase I made this year after THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez. In THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, Mr Roth weaves a tale of a terrifying fictional history of this country, as Mr. Lindbergh is elected President of the United States, defeating Roosevelt on the platform that basically, Hitler and his comrades in the Nazi party are not so bad and are no threat to America as long as we do not aid our Allies, the British. If America just goes back to its isolationist roots, we will be safe from the horrors of a world at war.

Lindbergh and his government convince a majority of the people of America that it is the natural order of things for the Japanese to rule most of Asia, and not our affair. It was acceptable that Germany rule most of Europe, after all, weren't the Communists our true enemy? And Hitler was going to stop the Communists!

In reality, the perception of a fascist-type government possibly coming to power in the United States during those years may not have seemed so improbable, given the times. There were large and active fascist parties throughout much of the world, even those not overrun by Hitler. And we did have a very active American fascist movement in this country. Roth describes the Bund Party of Union, New Jersey, of German origin who had very large rallies and hundreds of thousands of supporters.

A great deal of Lindbergh's policy in the novel is based on an abiding and all-pervasive disdain and distrust for the Jewish people, who he is convinced need to give up their basic identity as Jews and become assimilated into the American mainstream. Lindbergh follows this belief throughout his administration,even if it means forcefully moving them from their homes in the large cities, and out to rural areas, where they will eventually become "true Americans". And, as for the fate of the Jews in Europe, their fate is sealed. It is not America's problem.

The effects of these crushing series of events on a typical white-collar, middle class Jewish family and its friends and community is the crux of the book. The story unfolds slowly, through young Philip and his fears , and it is his tale of trying to deal with a world crashing around him.

All of the main characters are fascinating. The brave father, an everyman, not giving up his ideals; the stoic mother trying to cope with keeping the family life as normal as is possible, all the while trying to save some money to move them to Canada; Alvin, the nephew whose life is unalterably changed after going to Canada to join their army to fight the Nazis; the older brother, Sandy, who seems to be the most adaptable to his new world around him, and Aunt Evelyn, who believes she can have a normal life in this new world order by collaborating with Lindbergh's grand plan for America.

An interesting plot twist utilized by Mr. Roth was introducing the gossip columnist and radio announcer, Walter Winchell, who himself was Jewish, as a heroic spokesperson for what was happening in this nightmarish America. He was, at one point in the book, the only hope for the Jewish community in this country and the only voice for them that was heard.

Everything about this book marks it as a classic. I do not want to divulge too many details of the story, as I hope you will decide to read this book for yourself . Personally, I could not put this riveting book down. Pick up a copy! I would also strongly recommend THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez. Two wonderful Amazon purchases.


Rating:
Summary: a disapointing book
Review: Dad, I just wanted to let you know that I just finished reading the book, "Plot Against America" by Phillip Roth. It was one of the books I gave you for Christmas. Lucky for me, I borrowed it from the Library instead of buying for myself. What a bunch of garbage. I found the first half of the book interesting and well written but the second half fell flat. I don't know if you read it yet, but the book had a real weak and unbelievable ending and was filled with historical inaccuracies. The main main inaccuracy that it had was in characterizing the peace movement 1939 and 6/1941 as an isolationist crypto-fascist movement lead by isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh and pro-German groups. In fact, many left wing groups, including many radical labor and political groups, were also strongly opposed to the war. The American Communist Party following the end of the Spanish Civil war and the advent of the German-Soviet nonaggression pact, was in an anti-united front phase that lasted until the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in the Summer of 1941. These groups strongly supported the United States entry into the war following the German Invasion of the Soviet Union. Many of the leaders in the American left that supported these vacillations were Jewish. All this is ignored in the book. And on top of this, the Author, makes the the main character a person with the same name as himself. If you can't finish this book, I wont feel bad.
R.Washington

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and educational
Review: I don't quite understand why some readers would find the ending problematic. I thought the conclusion was appropriate and logical, with the Roths' family emerging stronger and victorious. The only problem I had with the concluding saga to the fictional Lindberg presidency was that it was presented to the readers about 40 pages before the novel even concludes.
In the beginning, the readers were left to wonder whether the Roths' family was being paranoid about the Lindberg's presidency and its plan to subjugate the Jews. There weren't any mention of other Jewish families's anxieties over their fate in America, just the Roth. It wasn't until the latter half of the novel that things started to go wrong for all Jewish families throughout America and they started sharing the fears of the Jews in Hitler's Europe.
Some readers might feel that the entire ordeal was concluded too neatly but I thought it was a necessary change after the chaos of the Lindberg presidency.

Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, So-So Execution
Review: I was expecting to like The Plot Against America more than I did. Historical what-ifs and anti-fascist politics usually can't go wrong with me.

Roth's premise is intriguing: what if Charles Lindbergh had defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the presidency in 1940 and steered the U.S. toward a Nazi-sympathizing neutrality in the Second World War? Viewed through the eyes of a lower-middle-class Jewish family in Newark, the results of Roth's thought exercise are chilling. Roth shows how the leading edge of persecution can be dressed up in smiling American homilies. But is it a re-enactment of the march toward European fascism, or just a faint echo of it? That's the question his characters grapple with, and Roth does a deft job of slicing and dicing their relationships with the shifting dilemmas imposed by politics.

Still, The Plot falls short on a couple of levels. As an example of the small but well-defined genre of the counterfactual historical novel, the book seems almost amateurish, despite Roth's standing in the American literary pantheon. The counterfactual novelist changes a known fact of history in a plausible way, and then uses the cascading "Butterfly Effect" of this change as the backdrop of the novel. By drawing contrasts (and similarities) between the resulting novelistic "future" and what we know to be the real historical "past", the author tells us what he thinks is contingent, subject to chance and human whim, and what is the result of immutable historical forces. So far so good. Through this tale, Roth is telling us that "it can happen here" -- Fascism Lite could find a home in America. He is both chilling and amusing in describing Lindbergh's folksy heroic minimalism, and how easily it could (and did) find resonance.

Surprisingly, however, Roth's imagination does not seem up to the task of probing the full implications of a Lindbergh presidency (even a twarted one) on the course of the Second World War or on future American history. The threat to Jewish Americans is real enough, but that's as far as Roth's butterfly ever gets. After the crisis is resolved (in a bizarre and not terribly satisfying way), everything snaps back to normal and history resumes its exact progression toward our present society. The outcome and timeline of World War II is strangely unaffected by America's 2-year dalliance with the Nazis (when in fact it would probably have been fatal for the Allied cause). In gratuitous asides, Roth mentions future events like the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy of New York taking place in California on June 4, 1968--as though the entire chain of highly contingent events leading up to that moment would not have been disrupted by the likely entanglement of RFK's father in an appeasing Lindbergh presidency. Clearly, Roth's interest in this subject is not driven by historical speculation for its own sake.

In Roth's convoluted ending, I couldn't tell whether he wished to attribute survival of democracy to the American people's resilience, the unexpected discovery of good hearts amongst some of his villains, overreaching by the remaining bad guys, or simply the vaguaries of chance. The question is an important one, because while Roth and his main characters are firmly rooted in the American ideals of freedom, tolerance and fair play, they suspect that the majority's adherence to these values is superficial, fragile and easily manipulated. Counterfactual exercises aside, it is a dark portrait of the country and its people that ultimately emerges from Roth's pen, and one that is surely less fair to the generation of 1940 than it would be to that of 2004 (which may be Roth's real target).

As a novel, The Plot finds real strength in its depictions of the family dynamics of its main characters, how each person's slightly different reaction to the common danger can create fatal divisions just as easily as solidarity. But Roth's craft as a novelist goes strangely AWOL when needed to weave together the family narrative with the historical drama. Instead, the two threads often separate entirely, as in the conclusion, where Roth drains any drama out of the family's fate by marching through the historical timeline first. Roth seems compelled to tell rather than just show, and he hammers home interpretations of events that would have occured to any moderately alert reader. This didactic approach drains the novel of subtlety--and thus lasting interest.




Rating:
Summary: The Nazis Are Coming, The Nazis Are Coming
Review: The Plot Against America is first off a coming of age story more than its a novel of Alternate History Mr. Roth does certainly did a stellar job of blending the two. The one issue I had with the book causes a conflict within myself, because it is also the praise that I give the author, that being, the fact that at times I just wished Roth would pick a direction coming of age or alt. history. Which for me made this a slow read. The tale that Roth comes with certainly seems plausible and sights this in the reading, that of Lindbergh becoming president, he certainly held sway over the American people, he was an isolationist, a great adventurer, and he also had the sympathies of the public due to his murdered son. I however didn't see Nazis kidnapping the child and blackmailing Lindbergh into running for president and implementing their policies toward the Jews, course this isn't really a big concern of mine, it is after all alt. history, certain liberties must be taken.

Rating:
Summary: Had a lot of potential, but not very entertaining
Review: This book had a lot of potential, but it just never lived up to it. I was hoping it would focus on the political side of the story, but it spent far too much time on character development for characters that I didn't think were realistic.

Rating:
Summary: Nazi America..1940 Neo-Con Right America..2001-2005
Review: This book is BRILLIANT! The obvious plot line deals with the "unthinkable" hijacking of the Presidential Election of 1940 by Charles A. Lindbergh and the reactionary RIGHT OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The folly of this is proven as the plot develops, and leaves the reader thinking..."thank God this didn't happen." While it did not in 1940, 60 years later it did happen. If any reader simply changes some of the names to the characters of the Election of 2000, and the subsequent results and loss of Civil Rights Americans have experienced since the Neo-Con Right (Reich) of The Bushies took over the reins of government, that reader will have an epiphany. This book, in a not so subtle, but brilliantly executed way, is a wake-up call. Read this novel, and enjoy the story within. Read this novel, and see what is happening in America today. Unfortunately, what is happening today isn't fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Thought-Provoking Book . . .
Review: This is a really outstanding book. Philip Roth is one of the smartest writers working today. This intelligence bleeds onto every page and creates an authority that is truly engaging. Even though this is obviously a "made up" history, the reader can't help but buy into it right up until the very end.

The Plot Againts American works on the big scale as well as the small. His narration elevates to a history-book tone in his sections about what's happening around the world and then moves in closely in those dealing with the domestic drama. Each person in this book, from the main characters to the secondary ones, is drawn wonderfully and sympathetically.

Don't be intimidated by Roth's library of serious, intellectual books or the weighty subject matter of this one. The Plot Against America is a page turner from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: This is the first work by this autor I've read and it will likely be the last. Counterfactual history works have grown from "rare and difficult to find" to "can't take two steps without falling over one". All things considered, I don't see how this book could begin with such an outstandingly interesting premise to such a miserably uninteresting ending.

I'm guessing there was a point to the authors story, but what it was escaped me entirely. Perhaps it was buried in one of his endless paragraph sized sentances or his "page of type" sized paragraphs. And, mind you, I was trying to enjoy this book!

After fastening upon an entirely believeable historical possibility he smothered it with a cast of utterly unbelieveable minor actors who never once behaived realistically.

A good story, an interesting idea was lost in four hundred pages of meandering sillyness.