The Plot Against America (Vintage International)

by Philip Roth

[ibeforem]

As soon as you find out that the main character in this book is Philip Roth, a boy growing up in the same place and the same time as the author Roth, this book takes on the feel of a memoir. Essentially, this book is not about the alternative world Roth has created by changing one election, but about how the Roth family lives and survives in this world. Much of it is seen through the eyes of 9 year old Philip, but as he would explain it years later, as an adult. The language and analysis of events is not that of a child’s.

The alternative history holds up pretty well, until the "bad days" begin. At that point in the book, the narrative starts to fall apart as you get a straight summary of events of the next 10 days. Is this by design? I’m not sure. I felt like it interrupted the flow of the story. I also felt like Roth cops out a bit at the end… I was expecting a story where Hitler wins and the world is forever changed. What you get instead is just a blip in the WWII timeline… a delay of the events that really happened.

Overall, it was a good read and I’m glad I read it, despite the concentration it took to get through some of Roth’s run-on sentences. Would I read another by him? Based on the writing style alone, no, but if the story interested me I’d pick it up regardless.