The Plot Against America Book

Told from the point of view of a fictionalised seven-year-old Philip Roth, "The Plot Against America" offers an alternative history in which Franklin Roosevelt was defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by pioneering aviator and staunch Republican Charles Lindbergh. The election of President Lindbergh strikes fear into the hearts of Jewish American families like Roth's since, although Lindbergh was a hero to many, he was also a fierce isolationist, an admirer of Hitler and a raging anti-Semite. While actual history saw America enter the Second World War on the side of the allies, "The Plot Against America" has the country remaining officially neutral but actually on friendly terms with Germany which severely hampers the war efforts of the British and their allies. It seems that the fears of men like Roth's father are coming true as the Lindbergh government pursues an aggressive policy of integration that aims to separate young Jewish children from their families while remaining disturbing neutral as a rising wave of anti-Semitism sweeps across America. As well as examining the wider social picture, Roth also details the effect of the new government on his fictionalised family. While his father and mother remain supporters of ex-President Roosevelt and quietly fear what will become of American Jews, his cousin Alvin joins the Canadian army and heads to Europe to fight the Nazis while Roth's older brother Sandy and his aunt Evelyn seem to embrace the new regime. "The Plot Against America" is an excellent book that offers a profound insight into how easy it is for personal liberties to become eroded in a time of fear in national security and how many people are simply prepared to look the other way in the face of injustice. This is a brilliant novel and one of the most enthralling stories I have read in ages, Roth's writing is as wonderful as ever and despite the lingering sense of dread that haunted the pages I simply couldn't stop reading.

...the unfolding of the unforeseen was everything. Turned wrong way round, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied as 'History', harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic. When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide inthe1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh publicly blamed the Jews for pushing America towards a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but, upon taking office as the 33rd president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial 'understanding' with Adolf Hitler. What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling new novel by Pulitzer-prize winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.'A dark, humane masterpiece, Roth is at the peak of his powers' The Times'Another frighteningly intense performance' Sunday Telegraph'The word genius doesn't seem excessive... The Plot Against America creates its reality magisterially, in long, fluid sentences that carry you beyond scepticism' Guardian