Must Read: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2004)
First, let me assure you that this book is fiction. So, even if you fear a plot, or plots, against America, no help here. But this is truly one of the most amazing novels I've read in a long time. It's really three books in one, which is quite an achievement:
(1) It's an alternative history of 1940-42, where Charles A. Lindbergh defeated FDR in the 1940 election, and the United States spiralled toward Nazism.
(2) At the same time, it's a personal memoir of childhood--the main character is a nine-year-old named, well, Philip Roth. The characters are, I think, mostly, real people. Just in a different historical context. It's a rather touching coming of age story, of a boy realizing that his father and mother are just people, but still admirable people, at the same time. And
(3) It's an eerie reflection on what it feels like when "your Government" doesn't really feel like . . . "yours" anymore. As Roth's mother says at some point, it's now "their government." So not really a book about George W., but about an experience that many of us have had, in recent years.
I found the book a real page turner--I started it at the beach on Sunday and finished this morning, on the way to work. I stayed up late last night and got up early this morning to finish it. I've noticed that some critics dislike the ending, which is a bit abrupt. But really, the first 300 pages is so good, it's hard to criticize the last 60 pages or so (and they are great, too).
Simply put, you must read this book.
posted by Number Three @ 7:11 PM
4 Comments:
I'm with you on 1 and 3: amazing stuff here. But I was less impressed with 2 - leading me to a bit more lukewarm overall impression. I also had a few moments in reading it that I felt Roth's politics coming through, and it rubbed me the wrong way.
So perhaps I'm tempering Emery's recommendation. Would be interested to hear what others thought of the book.
Great book. It's the closest Roth has come to a "thriller." Although I like the boyhood coming-of-age story, I think it does have a weakness, which is the overly sentimental portrayal of the benevolent male authority figures: Herman (Philip's dad) and FDR, who gives a pretty clunky speech that's supposed to be uplifting.
I'd add a fourth key theme to Emery's list: reminiscent of the film Capote, this is a "blue state/red state" book about cultural diversity, assimiliation and conflict. The main contrast here plays out between NY and KY, and Roth never lets you know for sure whether the interrelation between the two is benign or sinister. The culmination of the book is a harrowing ride of blue staters into the great red heartland. The book doesn't just express that feeling of your "government" no longer being your own, it also captures the sense that you've suddenly become an unwanted alien in the only country you've ever known and loved. That's what makes it resonate so much with the present. I think that over the last five years liberals and Democrats have felt as if they have walked through the looking glass into an America where everything "looks" the same on the surface, but where that old American optimism has been replaced with "perpetual fear" and where the freedom and diversity we once celebrated are now treated with hostility and contempt.
So, alltogether, quite a literary feat, I'd say. Roth has been on a roll over the last decade. American Pastoral (about terrorism, myth, and national identity), and The Human Stain (about race, sex, and academic politics) are also exceptional books. If you want a Roth book with a great ending scene, Human Stain is the pick.
Who knew TMcD was such a Roth fan? I agree wholeheartedly with the tenacious one's "stranger in a familiar land" analysis. Another case of TMcD's comment to my post being better than the post.
I would be interested in knowing more about what Sam meant by Roth's politics showing through.
Em, I'm sure you don't remember this, but last summer when we came up to stay with you guys, I was reading Roth's I Married a Communist. I teach Plot in my totalitarianism class (it's the last reading), and I've been on a bit of a Roth kick over the last couple of years. I'm trying to figure out what I can do with it, article-wise.
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