Yzabel

Hard to review, this one. I'm quite keen on Roth's works in general, but I wasn't so convinced here. I still found it enjoyable—just not as much as others of his novels.

What I liked:
* The "what if..." aspect (that's why I had picked this book, after all). I have such a soft spot for these, especially when they involve American history and WW2.
* The way the story was told, through the eyes of a child. I think it allowed the author to toy (no pun intended) with a point of view that was both innocent and terribly lucid at times, in its ability to feel the raw intensity of events.
* The convincing narrative. I felt that the events unfolding in the story might indeed have happened, have been possible. It's not totally far-fetched, on the contrary. And that's precisely what makes it frightening.

What I liked less:
* The rushed half-assed end, and the impersonal way in which it was told. I found it really jarring, compared to the narrative style in the rest of the novel.
* Actually, Roth could've gone further with this story, and do more with it than a two-year parenthesis. In my opinion, he might as well gone the whole way, and not put History back on its normal trail.
* The fact that past that point, the author seemed to have lost sight of what exactly he was aiming at.