by Don Delillo
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Published: 1991 reprint
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Historical Fiction
Paperback pages: 480
Rating: 3
First sentence(s):
This was the year he rode the subway to the ends of the city, two hundred miles of track. He liked to stand at the front of the first car, hands flat against the glass.
In this powerful, eerily convincing fictional speculation on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Don DeLillo chronicles Lee Harvey Oswald's odyssey from troubled teenager to a man of precarious stability who imagines himself an agent of history. When "history" presents itself in the form of two disgruntled CIA operatives who decide that an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the president will galvanize the nation against communism, the scales are irrevocably tipped.
A gripping, masterful blend of fact and fiction, alive with meticulously portrayed characters both real and created, Libra is a grave, haunting, and brilliant examination of an event that has become an indelible part of the American psyche.
My two-bits:
While written well, I could not really get into this story.
The story is told with multiple characters that revolve around the main character, Oswald, along with some of the planning and the plotting of the assassination of JFK.
Although this is a somewhat involved book about Oswald, to me, he comes across as a minor character in the general scheme of things.
* part of Book Passage Literary Prize Book Group (here)
* post book club meeting - I came away understanding more about the book and author's writing style which include hyper-realism and massive research efforts.
