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I just finished this book. I borrowed it from a friend and I could not put it down. I got right into the historical setting of the piece and with the plight of the characters against terrible odds. It was suspenseful and engaging. I may need to put it on my Christmas list so I’ll have a copy when I give my friend’s copy back.

Roth, Phillip. 2005.The Plot Against America Vintage. ISBN: 1400079497

The Plot Against America is a fictional work which follows an alternative history of the United States in the 1940’s. We are told the tale the from the point of view of the young Phil Roth, who watches the destruction of his family, neighbourhood and country. In the alternative history, America elects Charles Lindberg President over FDR and the slow deliberate march towards Fascism, neutrality, and the destruction of the American Jew begins.

The scary thing (after you’ve suspended your disbelief that such a thing could come to pass) is how easily America slips into the grip of the fascists. How patriotism, love of country and sense of duty are turned towards absolute evil.

It was a great read. The suspense is magnified through the lens of a young Jewish boys’s experience of his family’s hardships. We think to ourselves that “it could never happen here.” This book shows in chilling steps how it could.

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On this day in 1942, the movie Casablanca had its premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. Casablanca is the story of Rick Blaine, an American nightclub owner in North Africa during World War II. One night, he is approached by a French Resistance fighter named Victor and his wife Ilsa, who are trying to get papers to escape to America. Ilsa happens to be Rick’s true love, who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris.

The movie took ten weeks to shoot. The original title was “Everybody Comes to Rick’s.” One of the actors considered for the part of Rick was Ronald Regan, but the producer eventually settled on Humphrey Bogart. The script was constantly rewritten throughout the shooting, and not even the writers knew whether Ilsa would end up with Rick or Victor at the end. The reviews were mixed, but it was a box office hit, and it went on to with the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1943.

Casablanca now one of the best-loved and most quoted movies of all time. It contains lines such as, “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine,” “The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world,” “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” and, “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

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