The Plot Against America

The ever increasing fear and desperation experienced by the young protagonist's family made the book hard to read at times, but the empathy engendered by these deeply real and human characters compelled me to keep reading.

The ending of the book seemed a bit odd - most of the book had kept a tight focus on the family, but the penultimate chapter was a recounting of a flurry of increasingly unlikely events on the world stage, all culminating in (SPOILER ALERT) an apocryphal? story from a crazed aunt detailing a secret hold that the Nazis had had over President Lindbergh which allowed them to pull hidden puppet strings. For me, the chapter took the wind out of the sails of the novel both in that it took us past the stormy Lindbergh years and into the safe harbor of an America restored to its sanity, and also because it vitiated the It Can't Happen Here vibe of the book. The final chapter returns to the family in their darkest hour and manages to bring a keen sense of suspense to the unfolding of traumatic events.

The book gives you a lot to think about, but, despite the fact that I'm glad that I read it, it felt like a book to respect rather than to enjoy. (The other Roth book I've read, The Human Stain gave me the same feeling.)