TWO BOOK REVIEWS

The last two books I've read are "The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth and "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis. They were both really deep books that sat in my brain for weeks and so I was uncomfortable spitting out reviews right away. Now I think I can give some sort of assessments.

THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA
This book came out a year ago or so. The story is unbelievably similar to that of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. That is, it's told by a young Jewish city kid, about to go through puberty in the days of FDR. There are other details that make the similarities striking, but it's not really important. The real grab of the story is that it's an alternate universe in which Charles Lindbergh becomes president of the United States, instead of FDR. Lindbergh was, in real life, a Nazi sympathizer. This makes for a really interesting America. Lindy does not want to go to war in Europe and defeat the Nazis. The Democrats do. This a real flip of today's political atmosphere, obviously. But so much so, that it can only be a comment on today. It's a way of looking at the same strong beliefs, but reversed, and how each party handles it. Another comment on today is the way President Lindbergh brings religion into the country's forefront. It's subtle, and he doesn't come out and say, "Jews are bad!" but he makes subtle comments in speeches that foster an American attitude of fierce Christian pride. At atmosphere is built. No actual unconstitutional laws are passed, but the public at large is encouraged (somewhat subliminally) to equate non-Christian with unpatriotic. Sound familiar? It's frightening to see how the country can be whipped into a frenzy over anything the president decides.
I suppose I can understand when Christians rail against this story as anti-Christian, but they've never been on the receiving end of American Christianity's overwhelming political and social power. This is a really interesting historical "What if?" kind of story, but it's also a cautionary tale of today's climate.

MAIN STREET
Main Street was written in 1920, and is a social satire of the small towns in America. In a way, it's dated as all hell. The towns described in the book are from another time in history. It may as well be a satire of Kings and Fiefdoms. The world is much smaller now, and small towns are not isolated from the progressive ideas of the big cities, as they were in the 20's. The "story" is that Carol is a smart, independant woman who has big plans for the world. She ends up in a small town with gossipy women and degrading men. She basically fights to keep her soul alive in a world that's emotionally dead. It's a long book, but I found it absolutely riveting. There's no actual plot to speak of, but we follow Carol along on her adventures, and every time she loses or gives up, it feels so real and it hurts. It's the kind of story that makes you want to throw down the book, get in a car and go live your life the way you want, all human judgement be damned.
As I said, the very basic concepts are dated, as is the dialogue: "Say, that's a dandy idea! What a gay time we'll have." But the vignettes' satirical points are still totally valid and important. I belive I read somewhere that the essense of this book is about people who have big dreams but are too passive to make them real. I can relate to this, as I'm sure many many other can as well. I expect this may be one of those books I read every year or two as an attempt to keep my own life going in a direction I like. I never read Catcher In The Rye, or if I did, I don't remember it. But I always hear of free-thinking people referring to that book like I feel I am to this one. It really spoke to me and I think it's possibly the most literary book I've ever really liked and appreciated.
I just want to add that I was given this book as a gift by my father in law who gets me books for Chistmas every year that I've never heard of or cared about, but which I always like, once I read them. He got me my first Dan Brown and my first Harry potter, too!