The Plot Against America Book Review

100 Books in a Year: The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

By Brian Prisco | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (14)

I don’t drink wine. There are people who are connoisseurs, those who devote cellars to the pursuit of fine vintage. It’s usually a sign of culture and class to enjoy a nice red with a proper dinner, or to share a bottle with friends. My family often has big dinners where several bottles are passed around. Meanwhile, I sip my martini or whiskey and soda. I understand and appreciate it. I just don’t like it.

Such was the case with Roth. I can appreciate that he’s a good author. And he wrote an epic of alternative history without getting sci-fi. In fact, it’s probably more frightening because it was palpable. He wrote a semi-biographical fictional account of what life was like growing up during Charles Lindbergh’s presidency during an America that never entered WWII and instead brokered peace with Hitler, who Lindbergh admired. It was an America where the Jews were slowly broken apart, not by outright pogroms, but under the auspices of a fascist state which sinisterly uttered the dissolution of Jewish America ever so gently and quietly. It deftly blends fiction and fact, real personages with a fictional family. It’s really well written, and it was interesting.

I just didn’t like it.

I couldn’t rightly say why. I couldn’t give you a good explanation. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time to read it. Maybe it just the style Roth uses, sort of this odd blend of almost talmudic lecture, where he speaks omnisciently about himself or the greater picture, with a lot of repetition and phrasing. It kind of felt like watching an episode of “The Honeymooners” or “I Love Lucy,” if there was a lot of nudity and swearing. It felt dated and old, but with this new visceral language added in. It felt strange to me, like hearing your grandparents fuck, or watching your great aunt call someone a cuntstain. It’s not that that stuff doesn’t happen, it’s just that it feels so far removed from the now that it’s almost false.

Weirder still is that I feel compelled to read Roth again. I never bothered reading any John Irving or any of that ilk. I don’t know how I was permitted an English degree without it, suffice it to say I stayed mostly Southern and British in my fiction. I never traipsed to the Northeast or even the greater west with my contemporary Americans. Which explains my love affair with Flannery O’Connor and Mark Twain, and my disdain for The Cider House Rules and Snow Falling on Cedars.

It was the strangest feeling reading the book. I would equate it to being hungover during a particularly fascinating college lecture. You’re absorbed in what your hearing in the background, but you just want this to fucking end. You just don’t want to hear anymore, and you want it to be over where you’ll be safe away from this important and captivating material. Sorry, if I disrespected you, Mr. Roth. I feel the same way about chianti.

This review is part of the Cannonball Read series. Details are here and the growing number of participants and their blogs are here.

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Comments

I just can't wrap my brain around Roth. Or Cormac McCarthy, for that matter. I understand and appreciate that they're both great writers, but nothing they write speaks to me. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald or Faulkner; I just never got it - I'd rather watch the movie version.

Posted by: Marra at March 30, 2009 9:28 AM

I read this, and also was just....meh. While I hated the way the Jews were treated...the indifference and, in some case, outright violence committed toward them, and I understand that was the reaction I was SUPPOSED to have, at the same time, I really didn't care that much. Doesn't make much sense, but it's a Roth book. I've read some of his other books (Godtopus help me, I struggled thru Portnoy's Complaint!!!) and I just couldn't really russle up a good give-a-shit.

Posted by: dammitjanet at March 30, 2009 9:45 AM

I had the same reaction to this book.

By the way, being really into wine and letting people know that doesn't convey class or culture. It conveys the need to find something to be very snobby about.

Posted by: PaddyDog at March 30, 2009 9:48 AM

You know, I read Paycheck and felt the same way. I wanted to like it, felt like I should like it, but it was really predictable. Like, really predictable. To the point where as soon as I began a story, I knew exactly what was going to happen. And they wer all pretty much the same (or the ones I made it through, anyway). I felt bad for not enjoying them, but there you have it.

Also, I do enjoy wine, but am far from a connoisseur. I rarely buy a bottle that's more than $10. Maybe that is the issue...

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at March 30, 2009 10:02 AM

I couldn't get into this book either. The whole rounding up the jews is just too disturbing for me. I got too angry to continue.

Posted by: Duane at March 30, 2009 10:06 AM

AvB:

I believe one can enjoy a nice bottle of wine without having to bore everybody to death about it or impose ones will on company over what must be drunk. I have two acquaintances (they used to be friends) who would insist on picking the wine whenever we went out to dinner and would order outrageously expensive bottles of wine without consulting with the rest of the group. Once when we objected, we were told there was nothing else worth drinking on the wine list. But they still expected us to share the cost. As I mentioned, they used to be friends.

Posted by: PaddyDog at March 30, 2009 10:20 AM

"like watching an episode of “The Honeymooners” or “I Love Lucy,” if there was a lot of nudity and swearing."
---
I'd approve. I've seen photos of Lucy in the day that would set your pants on fire. And she wasn't even nekkid. Audrey Meadows wasn't bad either (Google images and count to about No. 7).

But Gleason ... God, my EYES are on fire!

Also, I always figured Ricky was swearing up a storm in Spanish, and they just took it for granted no Americans would know what he was saying.

Posted by: bucdaddy at March 30, 2009 10:28 AM

I hear you, Paddy. Fortunately, I have never had that sort of friends... though my one friend and I thought we should take a "wine class" of some kind, just to learn the differences and whatnot, but only if we promised not to be all "that guy" about it.

Me, I'm all about the tasty bargains. "I got it at Shop Rite!" I always say. "Cheap! It's red!" I don't know anything about noses or bouquets or Syrah or Shiraz or whatever the hell. And I would certainly never presume to tell someone else what to like. I'm fairly certain that's what the ... what, 8th circle of hell is reserved for?

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at March 30, 2009 11:19 AM

I absolutely love Roth and loved this book. The scene where the family travels to D.C. and gets moved from the hotel is absolutely chilling. I think it's a really creative premise that Roth manages to pull off. That being said, "The Human Stain" or "American Pastoral" may be more accessible. "Goodbye, Columbus" is also great.

As to Northeastern writers, for God's sake, don't limit yourself to John Irving (though I do like his books - EXCEPT "Cider House Rules", which bored the shit out of me)! John Cheever, Russell Banks, Joyce Carol Oates. All wonderful, all Northeastern (though Oates isn't a New England writer, admittedly). For the West, try Wallace Stegner. "Snow Falling on Cedars" is tripe compared to "Angle of Repose" or "Crossing to Safety." There are so many amazing authors out there. Get out of your comfort zones, people!

As to wine, I highly, highly recommend the Fearless Critic's Top 100 Wines Under $15. It's a really cool book methodologically and my husband and I consult it routinely before picking up wine. There is a $3.99 bottle of white that was featured on the list that we drink all the time that is absolutely delicious.

Posted by: samantha t at March 30, 2009 11:27 AM

I buy all my wine at the local corner shop...£7 for two bottles. Cheap, scrummy, and I get good and drunk on it. What more do you need?

Although it was a while ago (and therefore a lot of the detail escapes me) I actually really liked this book when I read it and a few episodes still seem vivid to me, so I was quite looking forward to reading more Roth. But then I have a shelf groaning with bought and yet un-read books, so I probably couldn't justify buying any more just now...

Posted by: Lisa S at March 30, 2009 12:40 PM

I hear you on the Cormac McCarthy, Marra. If the man sprinkled on some punctuation every now and then, I think it'd be a lot easier to digest. But that would take away the aura of that which is, The Mango, I guess.

Posted by: Leigh Hacksaw at March 30, 2009 3:40 PM

I gotta say. I loved this book. It's not without its imperfections. The book's protagonists are noticably absent as the story races to a climax of events outside of their sphere of influence or even participation. It is thrilling, yes, but it overshadowed the protagonist's smaller climax in the next chapter.

That small quibble aside, I found Roth's alternate history all the more chilling for its plausibility and parallels to contemporary politics. Roth's characterizations always seem somewhat autobiographical, and TPAA is no exception, even when recounting a childhood of a vastly different reality.

I've loaned this book to numerous people and many of them have enjoyed it immensely.

I'm a little miffed that Prisco can't articulate why he doesn't like the book. I think we readesr would have been better served by a review that assessed more the strengths and weaknesses of Roth's writing than of Prisco's personal taste issues. Which is not to slag your taste, Prisco. It's just in any review I'd rather read about the book/movie/cd than the critic himself. And this review seemed more about you than the book.

Posted by: Brad at March 30, 2009 4:11 PM

I didn't like it, either. Roth babbles. He tells the story of every minor character in this book, even if it only has the function of a plot device. That's incredibly boring, and completely unimportant to the story.

Posted by: FabMax at March 31, 2009 4:30 AM

I like Roth (and Flannery O'Conner, other Southern writers, and a whole gaggle of Brits), but I only liked Plot so-so. I posted my review today. The only reason I enjoyed it as much as I did was that I listened to the audio version read by Ron Silver. And I listened to Plot after listening to Silver's audio editions of I Married a Communist, which was ten times better than Plot. Plot appealed to me more by its proximity to a real favorite.

Posted by: Rose City Reader at May 12, 2009 11:47 AM

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100 Books in a Year: The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

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