by Phillip Roth, 2004, Kindle Edition, Mariner Books

This fictional book hinges on the 1940 presidential election when Charles Lindberg is elected president instead of FDR. Lindberg enters into an agreement with Hitler that the U.S. will not intervene in WWII. Some of the actions against the Jews that have occurred in Germany begin to be replicated in the United States.

Roth uses himself and his family as the focus on what transpires. Some members of his family are sympathetic to the new president while his father is adamantly opposed to Lindberg and his agenda. Phillip Roth is pictured in the book as an eight-year-old boy who is confused and alarmed as his father quits his job and the Jewish community in Newark where he lives is affected.

Reading this book in the time before our next election is particularly frightening as the events portrayed in the book seem so realistic. Could this really happen in America? One wonders.

The book shifts between the Roth family matters and the events happening at a national level. I wish, rather than going back and forth between these two views, that the author had integrated them together more. Also, the book ends abruptly leaving much left unsaid. I wanted to read more about the eventual outcome for Roth and his family.

I wouldn’t call this book a page-turner as every time I turned a page something more horrible happened. I would read a few pages and then put it down, only to pick it up again and read on.

I think everyone should read this book to get a flavor of the fragility of our democracy and what could happen if we go down the wrong road.