by Don DeLillo
First published 2000
Lee Harvey Oswald sits in a cramped apartment, cleaning his rifle and imagining himself as history's instrument. DeLillo traces Oswald's path from his difficult adolescence through his years as a Marine, his defection to the Soviet Union, and his return to America with a Russian wife. The novel follows Oswald as he drifts between jobs in New Orleans and Dallas, his mind churning with political fantasies and personal grievances. Around him, CIA operatives and Cuban exiles weave plots that will intersect with his own desperate need for significance. As November 1963 approaches, Oswald's fragile psyche fractures under the weight of his delusions. The story builds toward that fatal day in Dealey Plaza, exploring how a disturbed loner became the focal point of America's most shocking political crime. DeLillo captures Oswald's internal world with clinical precision, showing how personal instability collided with historical forces to produce an act that changed the nation forever.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Dallas, Dealey Plaza, New Orleans, Soviet Union
Period: 1960s, Cold War
20 pages · Audio Cassette · Books on Tape, Inc.
Content warnings: violence