BOOKCLUB-IN-A-BOX discusses Philip Roth's THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA

marilyn herbert

Fiction writers make the very best historians because they not only give you the facts of an historical event, but they support these facts with the emotional insights and reactions of the participants. Philip Roth goes one step further. He changes one single fact and observes the imaginary fall-out of that change. The year is 1940 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt loses the election to aviation hero and alleged anti-Semite, Charles Lindbergh. This fictional alteration has diametrically opposite effects on the reactions of the Jews of America and on the rest of America s citizens. Told through his own eyes as a seven year old, Roth uses himself, his family, and his community to discuss the ripple effects of this unsettling event. After all, these are the war years in Europe and the Jews of Europe are suffering horribly. Roth describes the two-year period from 1940 to 1942 in order to explore whether ethnic hatred and murder could come to the great United States of America in the same manner and with the same consequences as it did in Europe at that time. How safe were Americans then? How safe were American Jews at that time? And really, how safe is everyone today? Read this amazing book to uncover Roth s conclusions. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Genres

82 pages, Paperback

First published May 1,2005