Reviews - Libra | The StoryGraph

319 reviews for:

For someone like Delillo who throws tangents in a same paragraph, resisting to do that in here where subject matter is tangential than possible, is very much, fruitful? Perhaps it took him utmost commitment and restraint to not move around the whole way. There are dull spots, but everything gets tied together at the end unlike the real assasination, making it all worth. Without context I would've called the book boring despite being birthed by Delillo, but thanks to YouTube. 5/5

iancarpenter's review against another edition

4.0

The writing is incredible, story amazing and so detailed - but it's the details that threatened to drown me. It all comes together impressively but in the large middle of the book it feels like there's not a tertiary character DeLillo doesn't want us to spend time with. The last 50 pages or more are beyond masterful, his handling of the lead up to the assassination and everything that follows it is hold your breath story telling. I wonder how I'd experience this book if I hadn't seen JFK loads of times and had a sense of who, in the long list of characters, would turn out to be extra important. And, I spent a lot of the first half of the book comparing it to Ellroy's American Tabloid, a book that clicks more deeply with me. My first DeLillo. Definitely reading lots more.

thefriedone's review against another edition

5.0

Wow, so good. DeLillo meditates on fate, chance, and inevitability, with the assassination of JFK as the backdrop.

Did something in Oswald's upbringing cause him to snap? Was he merely a patsy compelled to act by, at different times, the CIA, the FBI, the KGB? Or are these shadow forces a red herring, when some believe that all plots inevitably trend towards violence and death? Could these individual powers be responsible for setting events into motion that then grew out of their control, overwhelmed by the inevitability of history itself?

Isn't it human nature to search for larger meaning when faced with such a world-shattering event? Is it so wrong to believe that Oswald was drawn towards this conclusion by the sheer momentum of his experiences? And to take it to the logical conclusion: how responsible for his actions is any one man, when they are shaped by forces out of his control his entire life?

Thought-provoking stuff.

dominic_caudill's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was a fantastic exploration of a remarkable concept, loved the prose, didn't love the characters in general- wish the book gripped me more in that respect, I found myself not wanting to read it because the agents / LHO are just all typically awful, but I suppose anything else would be inaccurate. The beginning and ending were both very well done and gripping. Enjoyed this book, despite how long it took me to finish it.

aja1013's review against another edition

3.75

«Destiny is larger than facts or events. It is something to believe in outside the ordinary borders of the senses, with God so distant from our lives. Some people don’t believe in God but they color eggs at Easter just to change the pattern of their days»

carmenx9's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“There’s never a dearth of reasons to shoot at the President.”
A spiritual companion to Sondheim's Assassins, though they seem to have been entirely unrelated projects despite coming out within two years of each other.

faintgirl's review against another edition

4.0

Don DeLillo went a bit bonkers for Libra, and it actually really suits him. Taking on the assassination of Kennedy, playing on conspiracy theories and the tumultuous life that Lee Harvey Oswald led in the run up to the event, it hops from Japan to Soviet Russia to shady training grounds in Arizona. We're led to believe that Oswald never really knows what he wants, and this was exploited by a series of intelligence men to try to pull of the almost death of the President. Was it about Cuba? Was it about Russia? Was it about boredom and a feeling of futility, or simply a lone gunman, lost in his own confused mind? By the end, none of us are really sure.