asandwich

This book was lent to me by my sister, who vaguely recollected that I liked the odd alternative history yarn here and there and suggested I read it ASAP. However, what I don't think she'd quite grasped was that my idea of 'alternative history' is really just fantastical tales of Victorian ladies and gentlemen zipping around on steam-powered contraptions and other such ridiculous nonsense. The book sat around in a drawer for months until I eventually felt guilty enough about having held on to it for all that time that I thought I should at least give it a go before handing it back.

For what it's worth, it's an interesting premise: the plot revolves around a 'what if' scenario where the American government colludes with Hitler's regime and begins to establish its own anti-Semitic policies - the story is told from the point of view of Roth as a child, through which we see the way that the country's changing attitude affects the Jewish community around him.

Sadly, I didn't think the plot ever really went far enough to achieve its own goals - feeling more like a vehicle by which Roth could use augmented fragments of his own memories of growing up in an American Jewish community during World War II (though, to be fair, these really were the best parts of the novel).

This book wasn't terrible, just not really my cup of tea. Sorry sis. (At least you can have your book back now!)