The Plot Against America: A Novel by Philip Roth

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it, November 15, 2004*****


I have never been much of a fan of Philip Roth's books. Then along comes "The Plot against America" and knocks my socks off!Roth has created a fictional account of an alternate reality to the events of 1940-1942 in America. In his bid for a third term as President, Franklin Roosevelt is upset by Charles Lindbergh of The-Spirit-of-St.-Louis fame. The famous and beloved aviator, although running under the Republican banner, is really a candidate for the America First movement, pledging to keep America out of the Second World War. After assuming office, he signs non-aggression pacts with Germany and Japan.

The story is told by Philip Roth, ages 7 to 9, who lives in Newark with his parents Herman and Bess in the midst of predominantly a Jewish community. Fear permeates the novel, fear of an anti-Semitic pogrom by those who have assumed power and by a large number of their fellow Americans. The creation by Lindbergh of an Office of American Absorption which sends, for example, Philip's brother, Sandy, to spend the summer on a farm in Kentucky, is the thin edge of a wedge which culminates in the assassination of Walter Winchell in his quixotic bid to unseat Lindbergh, and the unleashing of anti-Semitic riots across America. Death and confusion reign triumphant briefly. Lindberg disappears mysteriously on one of his solo flights across America, the Vice-President assumes power and imposes martial law. Then Roth pulls a rabbit out of his hat and, with the assistance of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the tyrants are held at bay, a special Presidential election is held in 1942 and Roosevelt returns to power just in time to take America into the Second World War after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour.

This an extremely well-written novel, one of the best I've read in years. Some will quibble with Roth's use of Lindberg as a villain but it is well-established that he was a Nazi sympathizer. In any event the novel is not about Lindberg but rather about what can happen in a democracy with a certain congruence of circumstances and people.

I highly recommend this novel