helenerslev Store SynopsisPhilip Roth creates a startling premise: Charles Lindbergh beats out Franklin Roosevelt and is elected president of the US in 1940, inaugurating an atmosphere of anti-Semitism and bigotry that turns the country into a nightmare for Jews. Among them are the Roths: Herman, Bess, and the two boys, Philip and Sandy. Philip is undergoing a typically hilarious and sex-obsessed Rothian adolescence, Sandy flirts with anti-Semitism himself, and the national blight threatens the existence of the entire family. As the plot travels along, Walter Winchell runs for president, President Lindberg heads into madness, and Canada threatens war. Roth's intriguing and potent mix of fact and fantasy, and his own fictional persona (young "Philip Roth" narrates the story), make this one of his most successful novels. Named by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2004.Key DetailsAuthor:Philip RothLanguage:EnglishFormat:HardcoverISBN-10:0618509283ISBN-13:9780618509287SizeLength:391 pagesThickness:1.2 inWeight:24.8 ozPublisher's NoteIn a novel of alternative history, aviation hero Charles A. Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, negotiating an accord with Adolf Hitler and accepting his conquest of Europe and anti-Semitic policies.In a novel of alternative history, aviation hero and isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, negotiating a cordial accord with Adolf Hitler, accepting his conquest of Europe and anti-Semitic policies, and igniting a storm of fear for Jewish families throughout America.Industry Reviews"One of the glories of the book is its counterpoint of large and small, its zooming back and forth, from chapter to chapter, between world events and the reactions to them in the Roth household....[Bess Roth] is the most admirable woman Roth has ever created (that is a slow track, but never mind), and she is utterly alive and convincing....In the end, the book may not even be about the Jews. To find the actions of one's government both comical and mortally frightening is an experience that Gentiles can share, especially at the present moment, which may have figured as heavily as the Second World War in the genesis of Roth's tale....[T]his [is a] sinuous and brilliant book, with its extreme sweetness (new in Roth), its black pain, and its low, ceaseless cackle."New Yorker - Joan Acocella (09/20/2004)"[H]ilarious and terrifying by turns, it's a sumptuous interweaving of narrative, characterization, speculation, and argument that joins THE GHOST WRITER and OPERATION SHYLOCK at the summit of Roth's achievement."Kirkus Reviews (07/15/2004)"In the balance of personal, domestic and national events, the novel is one of Roth's most deft creations....Roth's writing has never been so direct and accessible while retaining its stylistic precision and acute insights into human foibles and follies."Publishers Weekly (07/12/2004)"The brilliant depiction of the personalities and arguments of the Roths gives the book a grounding in reality that is rare in this genre, where such novelistic content has been deemed redundant; and, thanks to the craftsmanship with which the two storylines are meshed, this authenticity bleeds into the wider political narrative, lending it a compelling credibility....[A]n arrestingly original performance from an author who continues to astonish in his eighth decade."Literary Review - John Dugdale (11/01/2004)"Philip Roth has written a terrific political novel....The novel is sinister, vivid, dreamlike, preposterous and, at the same time, creepily plausible....Not once in any of this does Roth glance at events of the present day, not even with a sly wink. Still, after you have had a chance to inhabit his landscape for a while and overhear the arguments about war and fascism and the Jews, THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA begins to rock violently in your lap--as if a second novel, something from our own time, had been locked up inside and was banging furiously on the walls, trying to get out....Roth shows us how swiftly the rights and democratic customs of American life are lost, under the authoritarian guidance of President Lindbergh and his cloyingly named 'Just Folks' program...."New York Times Book Review - Paul Berman (10/03/2004)"With THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, we're asked to believe...that our country could, under the right circumstances and under the influence of powerful demagogues, degenerate into hate-stoked rioting on the level of Nazi Germany's notorious Kristallnacht. Yet--a dismal thought--this is more plausible than the propositions Roth has been presenting us with lately. Roth's handling of the story is sober, considered and subdued, another surprise. Roth's fire-and-brimstone eloquence has hypnotized many a reader who might, in a less persuasive fictional climate, reject the paranoid fantasies he concocts. Here, where the threat is real (however speculative the 'history' may be), he has abandoned his fury. For THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA is a book about fear. 'Fear' is the very first word in it, and for Roth fear is the natural companion of love, the secondary subject of the novel. The book is a tribute to his parents, Herman and Bess, and the tender order and fierce integrity of the life they created for their two sons, Sandy and Philip, in mid-20th century Newark."Salon - Laura Miller (09/28/2004)
