Libra by Don DeLilo

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Libra by Don DeLilo



Lee Harvey Oswald the boy, the defector, the husband, the assassin, the patsy. What is the story of the man who traveled with his mother as a young child to New York, New Orleans, Texas? Who is the man that joined the marines only to become obsessed with Russia and Marxism? Why kill the President of the United States of America? And who are the CIA agents who planned an assassination attempt on the life of President Kennedy to frame Fidel Castro? Libra is a fictional account of the life of Lee Harvey Oswald from his teenage years through the assassination of President Kennedy and his own death. It ties in the lives of three CIA agents, who were apart of the failure that was The Bay of Pigs, and are coordinating the assassination attempt on the Presidents life.
                This novel, more so than anything, is believable and intriguing but I did not care for the way it was written. The story jumps from Oswald in the different stages of his life, to the different CIA agents in 1963 as they plot together, to the 1980’s when Agent Branch, another CIA agent, is going over the different theorys and evidence regarding the assassination. It took a while to get used to that configuration in order to follow the story. My problem with this novel was that I wasn’t at all engaged or invested in the story of the CIA agents. I was much more interested in the actions and life of Oswald and even some of the outlying characters that were introduced like Jack Ruby, the man who murdered Oswald.  When everything begins to pull together in the later parts of the story it becomes more enjoyable. With all the conspiracy theorys that circulated around the death of Kennedy, it is easy to fall into a story that does make Oswald out to be a patsy. The mixing of fact and fiction in the story leans credibility to the different possibilities.
                So in the end do I suggest this book? I give it 3 out of 5 stars.If you are interested in the story of Lee Harvey Oswald and you want to read an interesting fictional account then sure give it a shot. But be prepared for some “dry” spots and realize that though this story revolves around the assassination of the President this is a story about the man behind the gun and not the man running the country.


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