Lee Harvey Oswald's Dream Biography
Libra is Lee Harvey Oswald’s dream biography. In Don Delillo’s telling, Lee is pardoned for his crime of murdering a president and only receives significant judgement for having abused his wife Marina. His writing the “historical diary” is depicted as just endearing, and his relationships with women in Minsk are made to seem redemptive and romantic. Sympathy towards him is shown down to the title of the book, Libra. Referencing Lee’s star sign, its uncertainty is meant to represent his contradictory character. Yet I never found myself thinking of him as contradictory or complex, but just as an arrogant character created by Delillo. The premise of Libra is the center of a lot of its problems. When someone so blatantly violent and troubled kills someone, there should be no decision to write a book imagining that they were not behind the attack, bringing up unlikely circumstances for the purpose of entertainment and contemplation. When it comes to a fake moon landing or whether aliens cr...