Our Gang (novel)
Our Gang is Philip Roth's fifth novel. A marked departure from his previous book, the popular Portnoy's Complaint, Our Gang is a political satire written in the form of a closet drama. Centered on the character of "Trick E. Dixon", a caricature of then-President Richard Nixon, the book takes its cue from an actual quote from Nixon:
Roth was inspired to write Our Gang by Nixon making this statement on the same week he ordered William Calley's release from prison to house arrest. As the book is written entirely as dialogue, Roth uses stage directions, such as "impish endearing smile", when Dixon is talking.
Summary
The book is six chapters long. Chapter one is entitled "Tricky comforts a troubled citizen". In the chapter, the citizen in question is concerned with William Calley's killing of 22 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai, but he is "seriously troubled by the possibility that Lieutenant Calley may have committed an abortion." Throughout the chapter, Dixon defends the notion that Calley may have killed a pregnant woman, covering many factors; If the pregnant woman was "showing" or not, if Calley could have communicated with her, if he really did know she was pregnant, whether the woman asked Calley to give her an abortion, etc. Dixon manages to defend Calley well until the citizen asks if Calley could have given her an abortion against her will, as "an outright form of murder", and Dixon gives the following answer, which is supposed to reflect his background as a lawyer and his hard-to-pin-down nature:Well, of course, that is a very iffy question, isn't it? What we lawyers call a hypothetical instance—isn't it? If you will remember, we are only "supposing" there to have been a pregnant woman in the ditch at My Lai to begin with. Suppose there "wasn't" a pregnant woman in that ditch—which, in fact, seems from all evidence to have been the case. We are then involved in a totally academic discussion.
In chapter two, entitled "Tricky holds a press conference", Dixon takes questions from reporters with names to suit their respective personalities. The reporters are called Mr. Asslick, Mr. Daring, Mr. Respectful, Mr. Shrewd, Miss Charming, Mr. Practical.
From this starting point, Roth satirizes Nixon and his cabinet—particularly Henry Kissinger and Spiro Agnew —as Tricky tries to deny that he supports sexual intercourse, provoking a group of Boy Scouts to riot in Washington, D.C., in which three are shot. Tricky tries to pin the blame on baseball player Curt Flood and the nation of Denmark, managing to obliterate the city of Copenhagen in the process. After an operation to remove his upper lip sweat gland, he is eventually assassinated by being drowned in a giant baggie filled with water, his corpse in the fetal position. Tricky ends the novel in Hell, campaigning against Satan for the position of Devil.
Reception
In The New York Times, Dwight Macdonald described the book as "far-fetched, unfair, tasteless, disturbing, logical, coarse and very funny" and "in short, a masterpiece". On the other hand, The New Republic compared the novel to MacBird! while calling it "tasteless and dreadful".Nixon himself discussed the book with his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, who called it "ridiculous" and "sickening". Their conversations were preserved on Nixon's White House tapes.