Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Libra by Don Delillo and Case Closed by Gerald Posner

I recommend reading these two books together. I read Libra first and then Case Closed. Libra is Delillo's interpretation of the Kennedy assassination. It is written in an impressionistic fashion, good writing but in a 400 page novel dealing with Lee Harvey Oswald and intrigue about mobsters it does get a little wearying at times. It's amazing how many details Delillo uses from the actual incidents in Oswald's life to create a layered personality and he takes the loose ends surrounding Oswald to create a very loose "conspiracy." It's a good way to see Oswald as an actual person and not the cipher that most conspiracy books paint him to be.
Case Closed by Posner is the most detailed account that I've seen to depict Oswald's actions as being consistent with someone who would be capable of killing a president by himself. The only book I've ever read about the assassination of Kennedy was Crossfire by Jim Marrs which the movie JFK was loosely based on. Crossfire read by itself is convincing that Oswald was involved in some sort of conspiracy if only by the evidence that most of his actions the year before the assassination make little sense. But the case that Posner lays out in Case Closed puts all of his actions into context. The context is that Oswald was a delusional and unhappy person who thought it was impossible for him to be happy as long as corrupt governments, whether it be in America or the Soviet Union, existed to oppress him and others like him.
The trouble most people have in accepting the lone gunman theory is that it seems so hard to comprehend that one crazy person can change the course of history in such a large way. But Posner states the facts so clearly and the almost incredible chain of coincidences that lead to JFK's assassination, it's hard to argue with him. For better or worse most of who we are and what are lives consist of (where we work, who we love and the very fact that we exist) exist from chance and being in the right (or wrong) place at the right (or wrong) time. It's difficult to think that world history can change by circumstance and blind chance, but it did.

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