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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my first full-length Don DeLillo. It’s only 5 am and time for a review.
Libra is essentially a blended textile of fact and fiction. What an imagination, to take a book and nimbly tie up a narrative of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life prior to Nov. 22. It’s a breakdown of Lee’s destiny, and the clandestine meridian that brought him to such extremes. It all begins with Cuba. The Bay of Pigs, April 18, 1961. Oswald takes a potshot at Texas governor Edwin Walker at the 2 year anniversary, and misses. According to his confederates Oswald is not a skilled aim, and rather a good decoy. So for the mission to assassinate president Kennedy, they have a fair deal- although unsavory, not to their taste. Lee has been stalked by feebee’s for his undercover work in the USSR. He’s a Marxist, clearly, and also goes by the name Ozzy or Alek. I suppose Fidel Castro’s middle name, Alejandro- is the same name.
Lee wants to publish a short story collection he wrote, called the Kollective. He has a wife and a daughter, Marina the russian beauty and June, only an infant. Unfortunately Oswald has the ill-luck to be assigned triggerman in Dallas. And he takes three shots, books it to the rendezvous point, sabotaged by a patrol officer. And taken into custody, his name smeared across the country. Jack Ruby gets a coffee at 11:17 next day, sickened by the disgrace Oswald has brought Dallas, Texas, and takes matters into his own hands.
My initial thoughts upon opening the book were that DeLillo had some rather droll and amusing anecdotes, non-sequiters, off the wall observations. Then I just sort of got involved in the story, wondering what was authentic and what was fallacy.
Libra is essentially a blended textile of fact and fiction. What an imagination, to take a book and nimbly tie up a narrative of Lee Harvey Oswald’s life prior to Nov. 22. It’s a breakdown of Lee’s destiny, and the clandestine meridian that brought him to such extremes. It all begins with Cuba. The Bay of Pigs, April 18, 1961. Oswald takes a potshot at Texas governor Edwin Walker at the 2 year anniversary, and misses. According to his confederates Oswald is not a skilled aim, and rather a good decoy. So for the mission to assassinate president Kennedy, they have a fair deal- although unsavory, not to their taste. Lee has been stalked by feebee’s for his undercover work in the USSR. He’s a Marxist, clearly, and also goes by the name Ozzy or Alek. I suppose Fidel Castro’s middle name, Alejandro- is the same name.
Lee wants to publish a short story collection he wrote, called the Kollective. He has a wife and a daughter, Marina the russian beauty and June, only an infant. Unfortunately Oswald has the ill-luck to be assigned triggerman in Dallas. And he takes three shots, books it to the rendezvous point, sabotaged by a patrol officer. And taken into custody, his name smeared across the country. Jack Ruby gets a coffee at 11:17 next day, sickened by the disgrace Oswald has brought Dallas, Texas, and takes matters into his own hands.
My initial thoughts upon opening the book were that DeLillo had some rather droll and amusing anecdotes, non-sequiters, off the wall observations. Then I just sort of got involved in the story, wondering what was authentic and what was fallacy.
DeLillo's fictionalized account of the life of Lee Harvey Oswald mixes in enough reality to intrigue even readers of a certain age (i.e., those of us who were conscious on November 22, 1963), and as always his writing propels the story forward. Since dad was the head of TSD during that period (see the book Spycraft) when poison cigars and such were being sent to Castro, the notion that rogue elements of the government might have been unhappy enough with Kennedy's Cuba policy to formulate a faked assassination attempt by Cubans is certainly plausible, and DeLillo pulls in enough of the known details (even in 1991, when this was written) about Oswald, Ruby and other real figures to make the story work . . . except maybe for the second shooter on the grassy knoll . . . Whatever your views about a conspiracy, this is a good insight into Oswald's life and character.
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5/5
"A fact is innocent until someone wants it. Then it becomes intelligence." p.247
I tried not to be biased knowing this was assigned university reading, but my god I couldn't get into it and all the praise confuses me.
The best part about this book was aspects of the writing, and I stress aspects. DeLillo is a good writer, and he does intersperse the book with some really eloquent, profound bits on the human/American condition, and these bits are really solid.
But the narrative is not only dense but incredibly dry. For each killer paragraph, there's endless more of little action. Chapters mainly consist of character A goes somewhere/plots or talks with someone, rinse and repeat. Sure it's 'realistic' but in terms of entertainment value and actually helping the reader to stick around, it sure didn't do it for me. Some parts of Oswald's life were mildly interesting, particularly early on with his interest into communism, but I struggled not only to remember any of the other characters but to figure out what roles they served when it all felt so repetitive and boring.
My biggest pet peeve was with Oswald's mother's sections randomly, and without indication, jumping into first person almost mid paragraph. These sections felt incredibly unwarranted in their style for only taking up around less than 10% of the book, and quickly threw me out of the narrative. If there was some indication, even just a separate paragraph for the first person, I might have not had an issue. DeLillo does it for Oswald's letters and other fragments of documents, so why not her quotes?
I skipped ahead to the assassination and that part is overall written incredibly. It's just a shame that those 300+ pages to get to it are so hard to slog through to justify getting there.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism
Don Delillo does not facilitate the reader's task. The text is dense, and according to the characters, the story is far from linear chronologically; it takes time to adapt. Then, I regularly have trouble with some of his dialogues that I would describe as enigmatic. A Don Delillo has to be earning! Does this mean you must know the JFK case well to appreciate Libra? I don't think it's an obligation, but it will clarify the reading and increase the pleasure you get from it, so much for the negatives.
Once well hung, we turn the pages without realizing it. I think the decisive point is the magnificent portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald developed by Don. This antihero will systematically miss out on his life without controlling or understanding the scope of his actions or encounters. This book is not yet another version of what could have happened on November 22. Still, it is more of a series of captivating portraits of the various, more or less direct actors in the plot, to conclude in a thriller, the final scenes of the assassination being a pure marvel of writing. Beyond the raw facts, we appropriate the context, the elements, and the feelings of the protagonists.
It's mastered to the end, so successful. Very heavy.
Once well hung, we turn the pages without realizing it. I think the decisive point is the magnificent portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald developed by Don. This antihero will systematically miss out on his life without controlling or understanding the scope of his actions or encounters. This book is not yet another version of what could have happened on November 22. Still, it is more of a series of captivating portraits of the various, more or less direct actors in the plot, to conclude in a thriller, the final scenes of the assassination being a pure marvel of writing. Beyond the raw facts, we appropriate the context, the elements, and the feelings of the protagonists.
It's mastered to the end, so successful. Very heavy.
4.5 bright, shining stars. I would round it up to 5 but I've decided that I need to start being more critical of what I read.
I have read three fictional novels centered around the Kennedy assassination. James Ellroy's American Tabloid, one of my favorite books of all time, focused on the men behind the fictional (but who knows?) plot to kill JFK. Stephen King's 11/22/63, one of the worst books ever written by humans, was actually a time-travel love story disguised as historical fiction, and all copies of it should be burned, although I'm sure King would just rewrite it in 30 minutes, anyway.
So we have the good, the bad, and I guess that makes Libra the ugly. This novel shifts between chapters from the perspectives of various CIA men and others who become attached to a conspiracy to kill the president, and chapters from the perspective of Lee Harvey Oswald himself. Both sections of the book are equally great, and neither would be complete without the other. DeLillo, who I almost wrote off after White Noise didn't grip me, writes like a calculated madman. It's extremely clear, while reading this book, just how much Ellroy was influenced by it when he wrote his masterpiece. Dialogue is sharp, tense, and tight, tons of characters are fully realized, and events evoke emotions that surprise you when you feel them.
The remarkable thing about Libra and books like it is the amount of tension that there is, even though we all know how it's going to end. It's hard not to hope JFK survives somehow, or, even more sickeningly, that Oswald makes it out alive. The entire chapter in which the assassination happens was so well-written that at points I felt disgusted with what I was "watching," and the horrible power that can make a reader feel that way is the mark of a great book.
I have read three fictional novels centered around the Kennedy assassination. James Ellroy's American Tabloid, one of my favorite books of all time, focused on the men behind the fictional (but who knows?) plot to kill JFK. Stephen King's 11/22/63, one of the worst books ever written by humans, was actually a time-travel love story disguised as historical fiction, and all copies of it should be burned, although I'm sure King would just rewrite it in 30 minutes, anyway.
So we have the good, the bad, and I guess that makes Libra the ugly. This novel shifts between chapters from the perspectives of various CIA men and others who become attached to a conspiracy to kill the president, and chapters from the perspective of Lee Harvey Oswald himself. Both sections of the book are equally great, and neither would be complete without the other. DeLillo, who I almost wrote off after White Noise didn't grip me, writes like a calculated madman. It's extremely clear, while reading this book, just how much Ellroy was influenced by it when he wrote his masterpiece. Dialogue is sharp, tense, and tight, tons of characters are fully realized, and events evoke emotions that surprise you when you feel them.
The remarkable thing about Libra and books like it is the amount of tension that there is, even though we all know how it's going to end. It's hard not to hope JFK survives somehow, or, even more sickeningly, that Oswald makes it out alive. The entire chapter in which the assassination happens was so well-written that at points I felt disgusted with what I was "watching," and the horrible power that can make a reader feel that way is the mark of a great book.
This one went over my head. I was so excited to read it but found that I couldn't follow the characters. I could've tried harder, but the parts not involving Oswald were bo-ring. So I kinda blame myself, but I blame DeLillo more. Convenient for me, I guess :-)
I'd recommend this to someone who has moderate knowledge of the Kennedy assassination and the political environment of the time. My knowledge of American history is passing at best, so it was hard for me to get something out of this.
I'd recommend this to someone who has moderate knowledge of the Kennedy assassination and the political environment of the time. My knowledge of American history is passing at best, so it was hard for me to get something out of this.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Quite a readable story that appeared to go on forever... Though, as an exploration of our inability to get to the bottom of Kennedy's assassination and, at this point, a denial of that process itself, it holds up decently well.