The Plot Against America

Philip Roth, who, up until quite recently, my daughter Katrina claimed was the best living author in America, died on May 22 of congestive heart failure. He was 85 years old. I've read a few of his books, and I think Katrina makes a valid argument. In reading some reviews upon his death, I kept seeing references to The Plot Against America, Roth's 2004 "counterfactual history" novel. Conveniently, Katrina had left her copy of the book in my condo, so I began reading it . . . aloud . . . to my friend and fellow liberal, Ed. We were captivated. The book blew my mind.

Roth's story is somewhat autobiographical, taking place in Newark, New Jersey during his childhood in the 1930s and 40s. His characters bear the names of his real family, so one feels that the novel is a memoir, full of sentimentality about his stamp collection and his neighborhood. When the "counterfactual history" kicks in, Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the Presidential election of 1940, denying FDR his third term. Lindbergh, of course, was an American darling, having completed the first solo transatlantic flight in his plane Spirit of St. Louis in 1927 at age 25. But there is also evidence of Lindbergh's anti-Semitism. And . . . wait for it . . . he served as a spokesman for the America First Committee, a non-interventionist group intent on keeping the United States out of the war in Europe in 1940.

In Roth's imaginative rewriting of history, upon election, Lindbergh soon begins putting policies in place to marginalize Jews, and yet the people still love him, cheering for him at his rallies. Young Philip's father, Herman Roth, is highly disturbed at Lindbergh's fascist behavior. "The man is unfit. He shouldn't be there. He shouldn't be there, and it's as simple as that!" Hmmm . . . sound familiar?

At times while reading the book, I would substitute "Trump" for "Lindbergh" or "Putin" for "Hitler" or "Russia" for "Germany." Made perfect sense. At least once, Ed didn't even realize I'd done that, so accurate was the revised wording. We would initially laugh at the similarities . . . and then realize how not funny they were.

Roth, in an interview prior to the 2016 election, did not take to the comparisons between Lindbergh and Trump. Pointing out that Lindbergh was an established American hero before the events in the novel, he had this to say: "Trump, by comparison, is a massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac." In support of the comparison, Ezra Klein of Vox suggested that "isolationism and xenophobia are powerful tools in the hands of a charismatic political outsider, and there is nothing in the human heart that inoculates us against the allure of a demagogue." I might take issue with the word "charismatic," but otherwise, Klein's assessment rings true.

Last week, with the resignation of Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler was named Acting Director. I'd just finished reading the part in The Plot Against America where Lindy disappears and his Vice-President becomes Acting President. The guy's name? Burton Wheeler. Creepy!

Do I recommend this book? Absolutely. Will it disturb you? Absolutely. Just keep in mind that truth is stranger than fiction. And scarier.