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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
James Ellroy proudly stated that DeLilo's Libra is the source of American Tabloid, arguably his best work. Knowing that, I had to get to the book eventually and found a work that starts off fairly interesting and has real literary merit, even if it fizzles out rather suddenly
The setup and first 3/4s of the book are excellent, with a juicy conspiracy born out of the frustrations of Cuba desk CIA agents and Cuban exiles feeling betrayed after Playa Gíron. It's a thrilling setup for a book, and the intersection of embittered intelligence elements plotting to keep their jobs is almost Roman in it's simplicity and cynicism.
The main issue is that the back fourth of the book gets too "literary" and the pace evaporated. The quickly escalating conspiracy almost entirely disappears, and instead we get the Lee Harvey Oswald show where he complains about the quality of food in Dallas. Interesting characters vanish and are written off by the Curator character in clinical one paragraph epitaphs. The conspiracy never gets deeper or more interesting than in the setup. DeLilo himself seems to have lost interest in it, as all of the plotters drop off the story on the day of the killing.
The ending itself is serviceable, but lacking a real oomph to close out the narrative. Libra walked so American Tabloid could sprint.
3.5/5
The setup and first 3/4s of the book are excellent, with a juicy conspiracy born out of the frustrations of Cuba desk CIA agents and Cuban exiles feeling betrayed after Playa Gíron. It's a thrilling setup for a book, and the intersection of embittered intelligence elements plotting to keep their jobs is almost Roman in it's simplicity and cynicism.
The main issue is that the back fourth of the book gets too "literary" and the pace evaporated. The quickly escalating conspiracy almost entirely disappears, and instead we get the Lee Harvey Oswald show where he complains about the quality of food in Dallas. Interesting characters vanish and are written off by the Curator character in clinical one paragraph epitaphs. The conspiracy never gets deeper or more interesting than in the setup. DeLilo himself seems to have lost interest in it, as all of the plotters drop off the story on the day of the killing.
The ending itself is serviceable, but lacking a real oomph to close out the narrative. Libra walked so American Tabloid could sprint.
3.5/5
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A book about the JFK assassination where we don't meet JFK till page 327! The type of book Malcolm Gladwell would spend a 3 part podcast series talking about what you+i+all of gov't missed in JFK conspiracy theories.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
"If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent and nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not."
Oh DeLillo, my favorite of the 20th century straight white male American writers. He never fails to investigate his ideas in an interesting way, and of course his impeccable snappy dialogue goes without saying. This time, the stage is his fictionalized version of the Kennedy assassination, just one fleshed-out theory of many (believe me, when I told friends and family I was reading this book, all the different theories poured out). It circles around the "making" of the infamous Lee Harvey Oswald, and also the three ex-CIA men who in this story organize an intentionally near-miss attempted assassination in order to lead the president to take back Cuba after the embarrassing Bay of Pigs. Obviously we know how the story ends... but how we get there is no less thrilling. I stayed up late to finish the last 50 pages in one sitting!
What gets me every time is how incredibly prescient DeLillo's ideas are. What this book is REALLY about is: witnessing the making of an extremist; why we are attracted to conspiracy (see quote above); the desire for certain people to be "bigger than themselves" and "part of history" and maybe that's a dangerous viewpoint because they think what they're doing is above criticism?; how huge changing events are just possibly mistakes made by normal people; how we can't escape the chaos that is human life and why try to control it. OK maybe that final point is mine own...
While it's my least favorite of the three DeLillo works I've now read and lags in the middle, it still felt entirely worth my time. And perhaps it will be yours!
Oh DeLillo, my favorite of the 20th century straight white male American writers. He never fails to investigate his ideas in an interesting way, and of course his impeccable snappy dialogue goes without saying. This time, the stage is his fictionalized version of the Kennedy assassination, just one fleshed-out theory of many (believe me, when I told friends and family I was reading this book, all the different theories poured out). It circles around the "making" of the infamous Lee Harvey Oswald, and also the three ex-CIA men who in this story organize an intentionally near-miss attempted assassination in order to lead the president to take back Cuba after the embarrassing Bay of Pigs. Obviously we know how the story ends... but how we get there is no less thrilling. I stayed up late to finish the last 50 pages in one sitting!
What gets me every time is how incredibly prescient DeLillo's ideas are. What this book is REALLY about is: witnessing the making of an extremist; why we are attracted to conspiracy (see quote above); the desire for certain people to be "bigger than themselves" and "part of history" and maybe that's a dangerous viewpoint because they think what they're doing is above criticism?; how huge changing events are just possibly mistakes made by normal people; how we can't escape the chaos that is human life and why try to control it. OK maybe that final point is mine own...
While it's my least favorite of the three DeLillo works I've now read and lags in the middle, it still felt entirely worth my time. And perhaps it will be yours!
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My favorite aspect of Libra is that in some moments it feels very fictional, but in other moments it feels like you are reading a true account of the JFK assassination. Delillo’s writing is great throughout. I really liked how the story switched between Oswald’s life leading up to the attempt and the others trying to come up with and then understand the conspiracy.
It is confusing at times, but I don’t think it is so confusing that I struggled to get through it.
I found it very interesting that the JFK assassination conspiracy theories are still alive today and amplified through the internet. I wonder how Delillo would have changed the book had it been written more recently with conspiracy theories spread through the internet and social media.
It is confusing at times, but I don’t think it is so confusing that I struggled to get through it.
I found it very interesting that the JFK assassination conspiracy theories are still alive today and amplified through the internet. I wonder how Delillo would have changed the book had it been written more recently with conspiracy theories spread through the internet and social media.
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Postmodern JFK conspiracy novel. The plot is basically the same of Oliver Stone's JFK. Not something I would read on my own. Verryyyy tiring.
OkyoucaughtmeIneverfinishedit.
OkyoucaughtmeIneverfinishedit.