I just finished Philip Roth's The Plot Against America yesterday. I haven't really digested it all yet. It's going to take another two or three reads to get enough out of it. The story moved along so quickly, I pretty much just kept reading as fast as I could to find out what happens next.
The story provides an alternate history, in which Charles Lindbergh, an isolationist who opposed America's involvement in the war in Europe, ran against and beat Roosevelt in 1936. The story is told from the point of view of 9-year-old Philip Roth, growing up in Newark with his brother, his mother and his father. The insidious anti-Semitism becomes more and more pronounced, and it's rather creepy to watch it happen. How it affects the life of the little boy and his family is profound.
Unfortunately, I have nothing intelligent to say about Roth's writing. This is the first book of his that I've read. I enjoyed it very much, but that's all I can say. I was reading far too fast to get much more than the basic plot. But I'm looking forward to reading this again and again and getting more and more out of it each time. And I'm definitely adding other Roth titles to my TBR list.
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3 comments:
As for Roth, try The Breast. Really interesting, much like Kafka's Metamorphosis.
Cool, thanks. There are a lot of Roth titles out there, so this helps to narrow down the list.
A friend of mine liked a novel of his about a prof. who would sleep w/one of his students a year. I can't remember the name, though.
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