I love alternative histories, and the premise behind this one was interesting enough - the isolationist and anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh takes over as American President in 1940, defeating FDR. The narrator, also named Philip Roth, describes his life in Newark, NJ, during Lindbergh's time in the White House and beyond. Roth's characters are pretty stock ones - the embittered returned soldier, his cousin Alvin, the dreaming Lothario artist, Sandy and the wimpy kid next door, Seldon. It is a reasonable yarn, good but not great, some convincing pictures of a section of a country under siege, from threats both imagined and actual. It turns out that the real plot against America, as outlined by Philip's aunt, who may or may not be deranged and/or deluded, comes through, but does not originate with Lindbergh, who would have surely hated this book.
The whole thing is unlikely, and assumes that the hypothetical election of Lindbergh would have resulted in the overnight denial of civil rights to one section of the American populace. Roth even quotes a Lindbergh speech - one that was given in our world - that condemns the Nazi treatment of the Jews, and Lindbergh's loyalty, once again in our world, was never questioned once war was declared. The hideous role in the alternative world given to the all but forgotten real life figure, Burton K Wheeler, makes me hope that none of his descendants read this novel.
Rating - 6 out of 10.
