The Plot Against America

By: Philip Roth

Narrated by: Ron Silver

Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2004 Philip Roth (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Highly Recommend

I watched the HBO special then listened to the book. Lots of details of course not in the series. Now I want to watch it again! Ron Silver does a fantastic job narrating. I’ve been a long-time fan of Phillip Roth...did I miss the appearance of Zuckerman?!

Not up to my exceptions

I have to start with the narrator - monotone, unchanged tempo and no emotions. he definitely a draw back for this book.
And to be fair - the book himself is not as well written as i hoped.

Good, but not great

I like the story in general, but at times, especially towards the end, it would jump around a bit, especially when it set Philip’s story aside to give (sometimes way too much) “historical” detail.

A message for our times

Roth published this in 2004, but this story resonates in 2018, with the rise of isolationism, cozying up to fascist dictators, and "America First" advocacy. It's a beautifully-told tale, with all of Roth's considerable artistry. As the old commercial slogan said, "You don't have to be Jewish to love..." this story of anti-semitism.

Will now be my "Have you tried audiobooks?" go to.

Even without the timeliness of the book-tied of course to the world as it exists as I write this-this stands as one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. Frankly, Philip Roth has always intimated me as a reader, but Ron Silver's performance is so much more than a narration I can recommend this to anyone who,like me, thought Roth too brainy for them to grasp. The story is as much about a little boy coming of age in Newark between the wars as it is about a very believable alternate history. An alternate history illuminating just how quickly and easily a country can change when the die starts rolling against its previous character.

Alternate History, ala To Kill a Mockingbird

1. I have never before read Philip Roth (not a big contemporary fiction guy), so this is the only thing of his I have to go by.
2. I read it because HBO is making a mini-series based on it, and wanted to know what it is about ahead of viewing.
3. The story is interesting enough, and, besides already knowing the subject, the "parallels to today" are speculative.
4. The twist at the end, though possible, seems a bit of a stretch to me.
5. My main reason for lower scoring: Ron Silver's reading. I have listened to a ton of audio-books, so I know narrators, and most are excellent. I would say Silver's is NOT bad, but, he has a habit of OVER-art articulating, E-NUN-CI-AT-ING every word as if trying to communicate to, perhaps illiterates or people who don't understand English or something. I found it a bit grating at times, and made it a bit harder to appreciate the writing. He also was not great impersonating voices, which, is something some narrators do very well, others less. I felt he at least did the voice of Philip Levin the child, the narrator, when he sometimes quoted a conversation he had a child, and spoke as in that child-like voice (PL is about 9 years old); but that was about it.
6. Overall, a decent book - in value AND in lack of Roth's famous "extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature", that "Portnoy's Complaint" is known for. The rare mentions about sexual things - the story is told from a child's perspective after all! - was, for me, welcoming.

It *is* happening here

This fictional history of a 1940s US diverging from FDR's Keynesian progressivism into violent ethnocentric fascism is a brilliantly structured novel of harrowing contemporary relevance. Roth's genius begins with his choice of first-person narrator: a 9-year-old Jewish boy for whom family, the neighbors, and adult mishegas are mystifying enough without the addition of state anti-Semitism. We see the enduring impact of oppression and hatred on an average, if hyperarticulate, child (whose name is, after all, Phillip Roth). In 2019, comparisons to the children of refugees being separated from their parents and held in soulless detention centers on America's southern border are inevitable. The novel deftly weaves actual luminaries of the 1940s, such as FDR, Walter Winchell, and Mayor LaGuardia of NYC, into its alternate universe, lending both credibility and menace to the plot. Remarkable for its regrettable prescience given current US politics, the book is equally disturbing for what it gets "wrong" about how fascism might overtake our democracy: less with a bang than with a whimper. Wonderfully narrated by the actor Ron Silver, this timely book may be too late to prevent the current plot against America, but may be in time to remind us what's at stake. Read it now.

Good book but a little slow

A great "what if" book that gives a good glimpse into pre WWII Era Jewish life if Lindberg was elected president. The middle was a bit of a slog to get through but the ending was excellent. I wish he would have went a little further into what happened after the end but an enjoyable read.

superb narration

loved it - ron silver takes you expertly into little Phillip's shattering world. terrific read.

A remarkable "portrait" of tyranny overcome.

A tale so compellingly told, deeply observed and both tender and, in the voices of his characters, outraged, that I listened to it at every possible moment. And it holds a warning of the most urgent kind for our times.