Wednesday September 22, 2004

At Least We Were Neutral in the War of Northern Aggression. Geez.

Apparently Philip Roth batters my home state of Kentucky in his new exercise in alternative history, The Plot Against America. As part of a forced relocation of America’s Jewish population, according to a plot summary from the Lexington Herald-Leader,

Roth’s family friend Seldon is sent with his mother to live in Danville, which apparently is near-barbarous. Danville children call the friendless Seldon “Saltine,” and he is forced to teach a none-too-bright neighbor child to play chess to have any companionship. His mother is burned to death in her car during an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in Louisville. The Roths are forced on a desperate road trip to rescue Seldon from the Kentuckians.

I actually spent a month in Danville in 1986 as part of a forced relocation of literate high school kids called the Governor’s Scholar Program. Centre College is there, because Danville is supposedly the exact center of the state — although how you calculate the center of a state shaped like Kentucky I do not know. My roommate was Jewish. He was probably the first Jewish person I’d met in 16 years, but — hey — what do you want? It’s Kentucky.

(via Bookslut.)