The story takes place in the 1940s in the United States. It is centered around Philip Roth (who is also the author), a boy who grows up in a Lindbergh-led America. Lindbergh defeated FDR for the presidency claiming that a vote for FDR was a vote for war. This seemed to work as all races voted for Lindbergh except the Jews. The Jews disliked Lindbergh due to his anti-Semitic speech that blamed the Jews for World War II. After his election, the story follows Roth's life and all the obstacles that he has to hurdle. Programs like the "Just Folks" and "Homestead 42" aim to help Jews assimilate to American culture (according to Lindbergh and his advocates), but are protested by Jews. I won't give too much more of the plot away - it's quite interesting.
*Beware, if you continue reading, there may be a few spoilers*
If there was downside of this story, it is that it did not live up to all of my expectations. I expected something dramatic to happen; maybe Lindbergh would set up concentration camps or help Hitler in his conquests. Maybe he would use the civilians army to attack Britain and make a dual-headed monster (with Germany) that controls the entire world. Unfortunately, though, all that happened was Lindbergh went missing and FDR regained the presidency. The plot was interesting and his writing style made me want to continue reading, but I think he could have come up with a much more exciting ending. Maybe Philip Roth, the author, was trying to get across a much bigger picture that I am not seeing right now, but I wish this story had a commercial-esque ending instead of a mysterious one that relied on the reader's inferences.
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