The only Philip Roth book I’d read before this was The Human Stain, which ultimately I found unsatisfying. I haven’t been to see the film.
But when this came out in hardback a year ago it was so well reviewed that I thought that the man who’s regarded as one of America’s greatest living novelists probably deserved another go.
This book is stunning. Roth sets the book in a parallel world as a young Philip Roth grows up as World War II is underway. He presents a USA where Charles Lindbergh, who’d become an American hero when he crossed the Atlantic in 1927 in his plane, was elected president.
What I hadn’t realised until reading this novel was what an anti-semite, Lindbergh was. His family suffered a tragedy when a young child of his was kidnapped and murdered, and he’d left the States to live in England. But from there it was a short hop to Nazi Germany where he looked on, seemingly with some admiration for what Hitler was doing. He received a medal from the Fuhrer and then returned to the States.
Fiction takes over as he wins the presidency and the Roth family, part of a Newark Jewish community, is aghast at what’s going on in their own country.
As a result of the change in history, America no longer wants to become part of the European war.
What’s presented to us in this vivid depiction of those war years is very scary and all too believable. None of the events are too far fetched, considering the large number of European immigrants that lived in America at the time, but the way events are presented is all too believable.
Goodness, we can see today, that if you want to present one side of a story it’s still very easy to do, and easy to win over the people to your side of the story. Only later does the truth emerge.
The novel ends with a series of very useful summaries of what the major characters really did do in those all important years. This isn’t just to show off some very impressive research, but useful background into proving that events needn’t be so far fetched.
Thoroughly recommended.