That was probably my favorite line in The Plot Against America, which I just finished tonight. I liked the book quite a great deal, and I will say right now that I'm going to talk about the ending so if anyone reading this has a desire to read this book at some point, I'd steer clear of this post.
The book was quite interesting in that the first 300 odd pages of it are this basically dystopian version of America, that has a sort of laissez-faire anti-semitism to it and regular compliance with Hitler. What I thought was very intriguing about it was that you never really got the feeling of whether Roth's family were being actively persecuted or if it was just them being overly paranoid. While the organizations set up by Lindbergh (The "Office of American Absorption") seemed to make the case for the former, as well as the fact that America did not enter the war and took on a Hitler-supporting stance, there were instances where it did seem like the Roth family was being overly paranoid about what was happening, and were being regularly frightened by Walter Winchell.
However, this all took a turn at the ending, which I have to say had quite an interesting twist. The book's about 365 pages long, and in the 65 pages of the ending, Roth simply describes what happened in the world, event after event, without really stopping to reflect on what they were. Walter Winchell was assassinated. Lindbergh disappeared, assumed to be kidnapped. America almost went to war with Canada. Riots over Lindbergh's disappearance cause hundreds of civilian deaths. The Democrats win the Senate and House; Roosevelt is elected President once again, the U.S. enters the War, Hitler surrenders, FDR dies in office. One thing right after another, and after the chapter ended, I felt like it was almost a cop out; this entire book, presenting this harrowing version of events, and it all ended up okay within one chapter. But Roth didn't stop there, and the last 30 pages of the book were eerie yet again; Roosevelt gets arrested, the U.S. is on the brink of war, and Philip's cousin Alvin and Philip's father get into a violent confrontation ending in bloodshed. While ending on a definitively sadder note than what it would have been had he ended it simply with Roosevelt being elected again and all being right with the world, Roth's sort of creepy, depressing ending that showcases the destruction the family faced during the two years of Lindbergh's presidency is a much more satisfying, less cop out-y way to end the novel.
What I liked the most about this novel was that Roth rarely ever went for the emotion. The despair felt by the family was extreme, and evidenced by the angry outbursts of Roth's father, but Philip himself almost never betrays any emotion, and when he did it was superficial- annoyance at the prospect of having to move to Canada; dislike of having decreased free time- all the things you would expect from a 9-year-old, which was the age of Philip in the novel. The one line that I quoted in my header was one of the rare moments where Roth breaks his character, and was one of the rare lines that seemed to voice his despair and regret. For the most part, you felt it from all the other characters; just not the protagonist.
Very good, interesting book.
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