- Paperback: 848 pages
- Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition (Jan 23 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345404378
- ISBN-13: 978-0345404374
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 3.5 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 640 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#292,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #46 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( K ) > Kennedy, John F.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Mailer opines that Lee Harvey Oswald was a sincere Marxist, a nihilist and an inveterate liar who was motivated to assassinate John F. Kennedy in order to shake up the world, to create the conditions for a new kind of society superior to American capitalism or Soviet-style communism. Oswald, he suggests, was quite possibly the lone gunman, or at least may have thought he was?in Mailer's scenario, there may have been other assassins present, unbeknownst to Oswald, conspirators working for some other group. His unconvincing analysis emerges from a labyrinthine pastiche of KGB and FBI transcripts, recorded dialogues, speculations, Oswald's letters and diary excerpts, and government memos. Mailer interviewed Oswald's widow, Marina, and also spent months in Minsk interviewing Oswald's Russian acquaintances and co-workers as well as KGB officers. Pretentiously applying the novelistic techniques used to better effect in The Executioner's Song, Mailer ploddingly recreates Oswald's day-to-day existence in the Soviet Union, then in New Orleans and Dallas in the months leading up to Kennedy's assassination. He hypothesizes that Oswald was a provocateur playing a double-edged game with the U.S. and Russian intelligence communities to further his own self-styled mission. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Mailer here explores not only the mysteries surrounding the murder of JFK but those involving the personality of the alleged assassin, Oswald. Employing the same technique that was so successful in The Executioner's Song (1979), Mailer arranges a vivid mosaic of hundreds of moments in his subject's life, recalled by scores of people and interspersed with extracts from his diary and from various official documents. In doing so, he gives us the daily textures of Oswald's life as vividly as he did that of Gary Gilmore. This is an impressive artistic achievement that offers irresistable, hypnotic reading. A substantial contribution to Kennedy assassination literature, it is, like Armies of the Night (1968) and The Executioner's Song, an essential book for comprehending American life in the second half of the 20th century.
-?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting take on LHO,
By John F. Valinote (Bedford , NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery (Paperback)
Mailer is always entertaining -- no matter whether you agree or disagree with him.Oswald's Tale presents a new take on Lee Harvey Oswald. Here is the approach: What if Lee Harvey Oswald was not some incomprehensible (no-talent) societal outcast, but rather, a somewhat talented loser who had great skill in jerking around bureaucratic systems? As evidence of this thesis -- LHO was able to defect to the USSR and then get back to the U.S. Not really an easy task. Could such a man successfully kill a president and NOT be part of a larger conspiracy? Perhaps... And what about those conspiracy theories? Mailer gives a few plausible insights into why some the of the evidence of conspiracy may be happenstance and wishful thinking. It is completely unfulfiling and base to think that our president was killed by some dispossessed nobody. From this springs our need to find a dark conspiracy. Perhaps LHO was of large enough stature (be it negative) to be considered man enough to have done it alone. Perhaps... Entertaining and worth reading. Mailer does not answer the questions, he just asks them. And quite well. The profile of Marina Oswald is to die for. You read about her and wonder what it would be like to actually be the world's most notorious bystander.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating and exhaustive study.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery (Paperback)
If you are,like me,intrigued with every aspect of the Kennedy assassination,this book will add a mass of information on one of the lesser known aspects.The facts of Oswald's life raise more questions than answers,and little is straight forward.Mr.Mailer,however,has produced a plausible,scholarly though entertaining biography of a man who will forever stand at the centre of the 20th century's greatest mystery.Exhaustive but essential stuff,infused with Norman Mailer's unique voice.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Proof of Mailer's "Best Living American Writer" Status,
By
This review is from: Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery (Paperback)
Beautifully written, although a bit speculative. While not really settling any theories, this book is the first to get us into the mind of Oswald. It's hard to believe this intensely paranoid individual could have EVER been part of a conspiracy. A great read by a true master.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
