Summary

The novel opens in June of 1940. The protagonist, seven-year-old Philip Roth, lives with his mother Bess, his father Herman, his 12-year-old brother Sanford (nicknamed Sandy), and his orphaned cousin Alvin in a second-floor apartment in predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. Philip loved to collect stamps, Sandy loved to draw, and Herman worked as a salesman for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Philip recalls that before he was born, the infant son of famous American aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and found dead. After this event, Lindbergh and his wife went away to Europe, especially to Nazi Germany, where Lindbergh supposedly became quite enamored of Hitler and the way Hitler was running Germany. Lindbergh publicly espoused anti-Semitic views and said that America should not join the war against Hitler. In a surprise upset at the Republican National Convention Lindbergh managed to become the...