The thing is, Americans have always unfortunately been fueled by a sense of famous popularity, which Lindbergh was for his flight prowess. Quite honestly, if Roth had written the book with a sense of fiction immediately, it probably wouldn't have been as jarring and as horrifying but to really get into the groove of the historically accurate account of the late 30s early 40s where antisemitism was unfortunately growing in America and to see what could have happened, how intense this hatred could have grown with a leader beholden to Hitler made it seem like a realistic possible alternate ending. The book seems historically accurate and personally plausible right up until the time in which Roth imagines an alternate future in which FDR loses out on a presidential bid to Charles Lindbergh, the so called "Lone Eagle" Nazi sympathizer. In fact, at the start of it, Roth takes a very nonfiction historical tone which is heightened by the fact he seems to be writing it as if it were his autobiography. This would score a 9/10) The novel is very worth reading for both it's imagination and it's history. It's a high 4 stars (meaning, it's more like 4 1/2 stars if Goodreads were to allow it.I personally find the five star rating system a little too limiting and would rather the rating be out of 10. This is the Philip Roth book that has been recommended to me the most and the second one I've read by him.
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