The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

This "What-If" historical fiction book considers what would occur if Charles Lindbergh had been elected as president instead of FDR when he ran for his third turn. It imagines these events from the perspective a Jewish boy from Newark. Everyone in the book is worried that Lindbergh will institute a Hitler-like program in America, given his associations in the past. General sadness and craziness ensues.

The book does not work very well on someone who already thinks that the United States of America should not have declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. The characters are paranoid and nothing bad ever really happens to them, except in the dream-like epilogue that ruins the flow of the book. I think the book would've been much improved if literally nothing bad happened to them and it was simply a study in the paranoia of the group. However, instead the book assumes that the reader sees the same sinister motives in the casual things that happen to the characters.

Aside from this 'moral' of the book, however, the book is well written, a page-turner, and interesting.

On page 272, Roth claims that the fictitious presidential candidate in the book was the first one to ever be killed during the campaign. Obviously, this is false. Joseph Smith had at least a hundred years on the character. (I'm not sure if Joseph Smith was the first though... Wikipedia doesn't seem to either.)