As we continue our honeymoon with Barack Obama, who, among many other things, is the symbolic repudiation of our spectacularly unpopular 43rd President, it is easy to forget that as recently as 2004, when "The Plot Against America" was published, George W. Bush was at his zenith. Convincingly re-elected by an American public still aching from 9/11; landing on aircraft carriers in full "Top Gun" regalia, mission, ahem, accomplished. Whether Roth intended it or not, his work speaks as much to the time it was written in as it does to the time it was written about. In portraying an America that went haywire in 1940 by following a famous aviator to the brink of partnership with Nazi Germany, Roth sheds light on an America ready to follow its Air National Guardsmen cum Commander-In-Chief to Iraq, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. By showing us where America might have gone in 1940, Roth, with his accustomed storytelling mastery, takes us exactly where we were headed in 2004. Very highly recommended.
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