Review: The Plot Against America

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engrossing story of an average American family caught up in an imagined Fascist takeover of the US, this alternative history follows one Jewish family, revealing the emotional strains and violence that they endure.

As a side note, you may ignore those reviews that want this to be a political thriller. If that is the book you want, there are others intended and written that way.

Roth writes at the most human level, revealing character and relationship. This is no simple polemic. The painful and frightening center of the novel lies in how a boy (the narrator) and his family try to survive when hate wins our government, and in how their faith in the core vision of America is betrayed.

It is amazing to read this in 2020, and see how prescient Roth was. I hope we do not fall as far as the imagined nation does here.

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