How'd I Miss This Book?

A series about catching up on older reads.

Credit: Vintage Books

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

In some corners of the internet (I suspect for example, this one) saying you like Philip Roth takes on the tone of a confession — it’s a weakness of sorts. And I get it, he’s an easy target — an undeniably talented writer whose lack of interest in the interiority of his female characters could be maddening.

And yet here I am confessing that I’ve loved his writing, ever since I read American Pastoral back in college. When HBO announced that it was adapting his 2004 novel The Plot Against America, I decided now was as good a time as any to read the book.

Set in the 1940s, The Plot Against America imagines what would happen if the pioneering aviator and noted Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh won the presidential election against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. The narrator is a boy named Philip Roth, who like the real Roth, grew up in Newark, New Jersey, in a working-class Jewish family.

Roth is particularly adept at capturing the slow descent into genuine chaos and terror. At first Lindbergh and his cronies are at pains to insist that life will go on as normal for Jewish families across the country. People like Roth’s father who think Lindbergh is bad news are told they are being paranoid. But then, things spiral out of control. The doublespeak from the Lindbergh administration and calls for isolationism (“America First” is his slogan) feel frighteningly appropriate for our current moment.

The Plot Against America is not necessarily a comforting read but it is an immersive one that will take you to another America, at least for a few hours. Get your copy now. — Tomi Obaro