Friday, September 20, 2024

THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, BY PHILIP ROTH

 BOOK DISCUSSION:  IN-PERSON AND ON ZOOM: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2024, AT 2:00 PM

In an astonishing feat of narrative invention, the great American novelist, Philip Roth, imagines an alternate version of American history. In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected President. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.

For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threatens to destroy his small, safe corner of America - and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.