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When Sebastian Townshend, son of the eighth Earl of Edgewood, was banished from his family due to the tragic results of a duel, he vowed never to return to England. Now living on the continent, Sebastian has forged a new identity as a deadly mercenary, The Raven. But his former neighbor, Lady Margaret Landor, has different plans for him. Back in England, Sebastian's father has had several accidents and Margaret suspects foul play and deception that reach as far back as the infamous duel. Convinced that only Sebastian can set the situation to rights, Margaret arranges a scandalous bargain with him that includes Sebastian's returning home as her husband. As the newlyweds uncover a deadly scheme, a fierce passion blossoms between them, which neither anticipated -- and neither can resist.
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The Plot Against America
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Book written by: Philip Roth
Average Customer Rating:   
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The Plot Against America - book description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781400079490
ISBN: 1400079497
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2005-09-27
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2005-09-27
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews:
In an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative invention, our most ambitious novelist imagines an alternate version of American history.
In 1940 Charles A. Lindbergh, heroic aviator and rabid isolationist, is elected President. Shortly thereafter, he negotiates a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, while the new government embarks on a program of folksy anti-Semitism.
For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh’s election is the first in a series of ruptures that threaten to destroy his small, safe corner of America–and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Alternate History
Comment: This is a wonderful alternate history novel that puts a huge spin on the dawn of WWII. Charles Lindbergh, a notorious anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer, is elected president and insists that America avoid becoming involved in the war. But what makes this story work is the narration from the perspective of young Philip, living in Newark with his Jewish family and in perpetual fear of the president and his conservative, isolationist administration, suspicious government programs targeting Jews, anti-Semitic pogroms, and eventual extermination inspired by Hitler. Philip's youth and innocence is refreshing even considering the tumultuous atmosphere. He idolizes his older brother and his wounded veteran cousin Alvin, who runs off to fight against Hitler in the Canadian military and returns minus one leg. Though he is just barely old enough to comprehend the gravity of the situation, Philip's fear is based on his father's interpretation of current events and the propaganda spewing from their radio. Philip also feels intense guilt for what he believes is his roll in an unpredictable chain of events. His reactions and perspective are that of an entirely human little boy faced with a difficult period in history. In the end though, he is just that; a ten-year-old boy who is selfish in his own ways due to a lack of complete understanding.
This incredible novel is so creative in its lineal history and its denunciation of fascism. Roth produces a very convincing alternate timeline and creates a compelling America under the rule of the villainous Lindbergh. The final culmination of this period of history is delivered with a rapid-fire urgency that offers an incredible conclusion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alternate history needs justification.
Comment: Every author has to suspend a reader's disbelief about what COULD happen, but when an author writes a book of alternate history, he has to do what fiction, sci-fi and fantasy writers don't--he has to justify, through his story and his characters, the revising of what DID happen. Most of the plot of this book is in the first few and the last few pages, and during some tedious sentences and entire redundant paragraphs that a good editor or author would have known to trim out. The middling mid-portion of this book is like the middle of the country itself--flat, bland, and not too sharp.
What's been described as "the twist" at the end isn't so much a twist as it is an attempt to make something of the 300 page mess preceding it. And although all of it could have happened, none of the book's characters or their lives and trials convinced me that the author Roth had a literary justification for whipping up this plot in the first place. His themes on family were fuzzy, the debate of America's role in this time in history has been explored from every angle in much more enlightening texts, and, of course, as a Orwellian-style cautionary tale (and parallel to current politics), it is trite and tiresome.
Mr Cucuzzo is a wonderful character, though. It's too bad he didn't turn up with his "you pulla the trig'" until near the end. That's America.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What If It Did Happen Here?
Comment: Philip Roth imagines a time in history if Charles Lindbergh had won the Presidency. Anti-Semitism grows in America, creating two separate cultures. Brilliantly evoked, Roth follows the journey of one American Jewish family as they see America changing before their eyes. Thought provoking. Frightening.
Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets
Customer Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Comment: I wanted to like this book. Alternative history stories are usually fascinating. However, this book is largely page-after-page a jewish family drama. That is fine, but I found it very boring. The "President Lindbergh" idea is not the focus. In fact, the book is slow and plodding until the last 50 pages. In these final pages, the most dramatic political intrigue occurs. Yet, there are not enough pages left to fully explore these plot turns, let alone convince the reader they are plausible. The ending of this book felt like an incomplete Cliffs Notes version of another novel. There were no shortage of positive blurbs on the back cover of my paperback, yet this book left me wondering what those critics were thinking when they praised this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Reminder of Why Writers Should Aspire to Greatness
Comment: I won't rehash the plot of Roth's brilliant diversion of American history, or belabor his point, which I think is that things like the Bush Administration and the Iraq War happen because we forget the lessons we should have learned from history, or forget to pay attention to history and its possibilities. This point is made, but how it is made is the work of genius here. The Plot Against America is a beautifully rendered piece of fiction. Of course it's no secret that Roth's wordcraft is in the upper of the upper echelon of American writers. His humor and warmth, which endear you to characters for life, can turn to horror and fear so quickly you desperately hope that the characters you love will survive the novel's day. This is the kind of novel that should make all writers want to write better. The story is poignant, as mentioned, heartfelt, as it is based on Roth's own family, and compelling in a way I did not expect. Roth's statements about anti-Semitism and fascism are not new, but the way he puts a human face on anti-Semitism is to show its effect on one family, and not just as victims but as participants as well. The reader is completely drawn into the Roth family, in fact you become a member of the family, privy to its secrets, desires, fears, and joys, and each day of the alternate history brings more surprises and anxiety as you seek to know how and if the Roths will survive. Most powerful of all is the realization that despite any ethnicity we try to cling to, in this country we're all Americans, a bunch of mutts who survive and thrive because we are mutts, and yet if we aren't vigilant about avoiding group-think, and letting ourselves be led by cloying manipulative declarations of patriotism and disingenuous flag-waving, we can let ignorance turn us into a hateful mob in a day. Roth points out well the inherent problems with America, but he also more forcefully celebrates what it truly means to be an American. This novel will stand as one of the great works of literature, and because it is a bit outside many of his usual themes, perhaps the most memorable book in Roth's spectacular oeuvre.
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