The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazing. Phillip Roth's plot-writing is unequaled. Also, this terrifying alternate history doesn't feel so very alternate these days that American democratic values are under siege, numerous groups are openly the targets of hate speech (sometimes by the President himself) and violence, and there are domestic calamities like little children being held in detention centers without their parents, soap, or sufficient diapers.

View all my reviews

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

American Pastoral by Philip Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Who am I to review this book? So I won't.

I highlighted half the book, but my favorite sentence is: “He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense. And when that happens the happiness is never spontaneous again. It is artificial and, even then, bought at the price of an obstinate estrangement from oneself and one's history.” I kind of wish I was like the early Swede and didn't understand this sentence.

Another sentence I love, but which is a bit less straight-forward is: "A dozen candles burned in two tall ceramic candelabra, and to the Swede, who sat flanked by his mother and by Sheila Salzman, everyone's eyes--deceptively enough, even Marcia's eyes--appeared blessed in that light with spiritual understanding, with kindly lucidity, alive with all the meaning one so craves to find in one's friends."

View all my reviews