The Plot Against America by Philip Roth - or - How to Ruin a Good Idea for a Book

By Barrister Lichtenauer

The first session of the Gentlemen Bookreader's Club of America recently adjourned and it was unanimous - Philip Roth wrote a terrible book. Aside from the random mentions of masturbation and penis (described as "acorn-like"), it was chock-full of useless details.

A good term to describe this turd of a novel is Literary Masturbation. It seems Roth was in love with the fact that he did so much research, so he made sure to spurt it all over every page. Thanks Philip. Over six pages describing different stamps. Three pages detailing the Jewish social elite in 1940. He even took all the research he didn't use and threw it in the back of the book. Genius. I just read like 350 pages of your garbage, and I don't think I'll be reading your addendum.

Now, on to the plot. This book asked the question, "What would happen if Nazi-sympathizer Charles Lindbergh became president of the United States of America?" The implications and ramifications of such a fundamental shift in American ideology was a worthy subject to write about, which is most of the reason we were all so interested in reading it. The book examined this idea at a micro-level through the eyes of the Roth family. Young Philip (yep, he put himself in the book) watches as his Jewish family comes to term with their new circumstances.

Pretty provocative, huh? And the verdict? Roth managed to take all of the potential described above and wield an impossibly slow read. Boring. Tedious. Terrible. Written like an English textbook. And it's full of weird asides that never really amount to anything. For instance, the Philip character is a wimpy creep - plain and simple. He had a "game" that consisted of getting on buses and following gentiles home, or wherever they may be going. There was a whole chapter dedicated to this game. An entire chapter. And chapters were like 50 pages long. An entire chapter. I guess they call it character development, but this book would shoot for epic then go back and spend time with this minutiae. And if that "game" wasn't creepy enough, Philip also liked to steal clothes from the school nerd who lived below him. Yep. He didn't have any friends, his Dad just died and then comes Philip, stealing his clothes and getting him in trouble. Even worse, Philip literally ruins this kid's life later in the book. It's incredible. Made no sense. Completely illogical.

So. This book was horrible. Don't read it. The Gentlemen Bookreader's Club of America does not approve. Oh, and if any of you thought that Philip's "game" sounded like fun, then you're cordially invited by the The Gentlemen Bookreader's Club of America to never read our blog again.

Overall rating: 3.75 Clubbed Seals (that's bad)

Meeting Place: Dark Horse Tavern was chosen to highlight the dark horse candidacy of Charles Lindburgh from the story. It's also important to note that frequenting the Dark Horse Tavern is a somber, miserable experience - the parallels were too obvious to ignore.

Next Up: In The Woods by Tana French