The Plot Against America by Philip Roth has been around since 2004, been made into a TV series, is widely considered to be a modern American classic and has lingered on my TBR list for a while. Perhaps reading it now, against the backdrop of current American politics, is even more impactful (it’s certainly more frightening). Roth imagines an alternative political reality with the aviation hero and Nazi sympathiser Charles Lindbergh defeating Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election. Under the motto ‘America First’, (sounds familiar?), the country takes a sharp anti-semitic turn, threatening democracy and the Jewish Roth family’s peaceful existence.
The story is told by Roth looking back at his childhood self. Happily ensconced in a New Jersey lower-middle class community, the Roth family goes about their daily lives: Herman as an insurance agent, Bess as a secretary, 7-year old Philip and his 12-year-old brother Sandy, as pupils at the local school.
Lindberg wins on an isolationist platform but quickly starts fraternising with Hitler and picks up ideas on how to deal with the ‘Jewish problem’. One of which is to ‘Americanise’ Jewish children through a government plan hatched by the Office of American Absorption. A plan which Bess’ glamorous sister Evelyn and her husband, a Quisling-like Rabbi, recruits Sandy into. Sandy is off to ‘summer camp’ in Kentucky, much to the chagrin of Herman, and returns a poster child for Lindbergh’s project. Next, Herman is told that his job has been relocated.
Meanwhile, Herman’s orphaned nephew Alvin, who shares his violent opposition to Lindbergh, joins the Canadian Army to fight Hitler but comes back seriously injured, physically and emotionally. The FBI is not amused and the Roth family comes under surveillance.
Mr Roth, a confrontationist, fights with teeth and claws and rages against Lindbergh, the Fascists, the anti-semites and the daily erosion of democratic institutions while Bess attempts to be oil on water, often worried that her husband’s strong opinions will get them into trouble.
Roth’s carefully chiselled sentences are long and dense but a joy to read; it’s not a coincidence that he’s considered one of America’s finest authors. We feel the creeping threat and the visceral fear felt by the Jewish community as Lindbergh’s plan closes in. The political plays a big role in this book and if there is one criticism it would be that Roth’s descriptions of the political landscape sometimes drag on a bit. Where he really triumphs, though, is in making the political personal, showing how decisions in the White House ruins peoples’ lives in the most tragic and violent ways.
‘…every day I ask myself the same question: How can this be happening in America? How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination.’
Need I say more.
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth is published by Vintage, 400 pages.
