10 Famous Authors Who Show Up As Characters In Their Own Work

2. Philip Roth - The Plot Against America

One of America's most-beloved writers, Philip Roth has written over 25 novels including Goodbye, Columbus, American Pastoral, Everyman and Nemesis. He has also won countless prestigious awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize and the U.S. National Award For Fiction. The Plot Against America postulates an alternative history in which Charles Lindbergh becomes president instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt, utterly transforming the political landscape and creating a world in which anti-Semitism is more accepted. In an attempt to lend believability to this alternate timeline, Roth names many real-life historical figures and celebrities. He also narrates the novel via himself as a young child. Roth's function in the novel is twofold: firstly, his childlike perception means that this new world is just as alien to him as it is to us the reader, and secondly, he is able to explore the trials and tribulations of growing up from a mature, detached perspective.

I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews.