dansolo 's review for:

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

4.0

dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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The revelation that came when

the title of the novel is actually indicative of an actual stratagem concocted against the United States democracy as opposed to merely a government harbouring dangerous beliefs that are at odds with American Values,

honestly kind of changed the way I see the world geopolitically. Truly, truly ingenious. Roth doesn’t waste one single word in this entire story, truly surgical use of prose. The manufacturing of a fascist police state is as terrifyingly believable as it is hauntingly prescient. It’s really quite astounding how littered with similarities so much of this book is to current US. Roth is a genius. 

The main drawback for me is that not much of the novel felt like a gut-punch, but I feel like in a way it’s also a compliment to Roth’s seamlessness in

transitioning a free society into a satellite of Nazi Germany.

Before you know it, it’s already happened. Also, I must say, for the novel’s genius (which is why I only say this with a degree of hesitancy) I did think that

Anne Lindbergh saving the day was quite unrealistic, and not just because in real life she didn’t seem half the woman Roth made her out to be here. Is there really any way 1940s USA would allow a woman, no matter who that woman may be, to assume a position above the acting president himself and u-turn an ideology that had been building at the exact behest of Hitler and his obsequious cabinet themselves? Would that even be acceptable today?

But what do I know? All in all, an extremely important read.