Review by Jared Kavanagh.
There are plenty of authors who write alternate history fiction as a significant part of their literary output, and thus follow the conventions of the genre, in so far as alternate history can be said to be a genre. However, alternate history is flexible enough as a setting and a literary device that often authors more well-known for other genres have composed occasional alternate history novels, such as Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt or Robert Silverberg’s Roma Eterna.
Philip Roth was one of the foremost American authors of his generation and explored American identity through a variety of genres and settings. His fiction often featured a strong autobiographical element, including depictions of his hometown in Newark, New Jersey. It was therefore unsurprising that he turned his attention to alternate history in The Plot Against America.
While this is one of the more well-known novels of alternate history—even being converted to a 2020 miniseries on HBO, which I’ve neither seen nor have any interest in watching—I had managed to largely avoid any exposure to the book in online discussions until I picked up a hard copy a few months ago. I knew the core premise, that Lindbergh became U.S. President in 1940 and that this led to a rise in antisemitism in the United States, but that was about all. As such, I was fortunately able to read this book through fresh eyes, without any strong expectations of what I would find inside.
The Plot Against America is the story of what might have happened if fascism and antisemitism had found a home in the United States during the mid-twentieth century, and more precisely how that would have been experienced by one particular Jewish family, including a young Philip Roth. This is a story of slowly-building panic, distress and ultimately trauma, not just for what happens, but because of the ever-growing shadow of fear of what might happen.
The bones of the changed history are easily explained: in 1940 FDR is seeking re-election for an unprecedented third term. Instead of being opposed by Wendell Wilkie, a deadlocked Republican convention ends up choosing Charles Lindbergh, renowned aviator and bearer of a medal bestowed by the Third Reich, as an anti-war candidate. Lindbergh goes on to win a landslide election on the platform of keeping the United States out of the war and makes “pacts of understanding” with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. War rages on in much of the rest of the world, while within America’s borders Lindbergh keeps the peace and also, more meaningfully for the viewpoint character, starts the United States down a road to home-grown fascism.
This is not a story of fast-paced action, or for the most part action at all. It’s a story about the experience of growing up as an American Jew in a United States where antisemitism is becoming more prevalent, while in the wider world the Third Reich is on the march and Imperial Japan is going conquering in East Asia. It draws from Roth’s own life history and experience (presumably fictionalised to a degree even before the changed history, though I’m not familiar enough with his life story to be sure of that) and thus makes this an intensely personalised tale. There are insights into what’s happening in the wider world, but they are largely relevant for how they affect the viewpoint character and his family.
As plausible alternate history The Plot Against America could be criticised on several grounds, but that is not the point of the novel. Alternate history can be used as a setting to tell any number of different tales, not just those bound by strict criteria of plausibility, and this tale of fictionalised autobiography is one such example.
The other noteworthy aspect of this book is that it is simply exceptionally well-written. Good writing is its own skill, and Roth really knew how to string a phrase together. This book gives a vivid impression of how a child encountered the era, filtered through a later narration which provides a broader overview of events and permits insights which would not be possible if simply told via the direct experience of an eight (or so) year old.
All that said, while reading The Plot Against America was overall a rewarding experience, the work is not without its flaws. While it wasn’t plausible history, or meant to be, occasionally aspects of the setting strained my sense of disbelief too much. This included, for example, the sheer scale of Lindbergh’s electoral landslide, and how some of the proto-fascist behaviour went square against the U.S. Constitution (as it was interpreted at the time) and left me wondering why there weren’t legal challenges against it. These were minor points in the greater scheme of the novel, but still took me out of the reading experience.
Another aspect is that this book proceeded at an extremely slow pace, except for a couple of brief bursts of events and then a rush at the end. While the writing was engaging, I still had no problem putting the book down and then picking it up again later. This is a tale of creeping horror, not gripping reading.
The largest disappointment though, was the conclusion of the book. Without going full spoilers, it felt rushed and very heavily reliant on deus ex machina. Events happen, unpleasant and scary events, but they are abruptly resolved and then history is put pretty much back onto its original course, with only the briefest of description of how that happened. The book may be called The Plot Against America, but in its composition, it quickly ran out of plot.
All in all, though, Roth’s work is a worthwhile addition to the alternate history canon, and well worth reading as a classic of the genre.
Jared Kavanagh has written for numerous Sea Lion anthologies as well as editing Apocalypse How? and Alternate Australias, and wrote the The Land of Red and Gold series.