Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery : An American Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: A great book that focuses on Oswalds life, rather than the moment that entrenched him in the minds of a generation. Recommended reading for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Proof of Mailer's "Best Living American Writer" Status
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Getting to the Core of the Real Lee Oswald
Review: Ever since the Warren Commission published its findings in 1964 on the murder of President Kennedy, the true essence of Lee Harvey Oswald and his motivation in carrying out the "murder of the century" have remained opaque. The Warren Commission drew a picture of a "frustrated loser", who probably due to feelings of jealousy and inadequacy, decided to kill the "young, handsome, rich, popular President". This seemed unsatisfactory to many people, providing a fertile ground for the spawning of the myriads of conspiracy theories that have flourished since then.

Fortunately, the fall of the Communist regime in the Soviet Union, which occurred while many of the people who knew Oswald during his sojourn there were still alive, shed much new light on Oswald. Norman Mailer took advantage of this to get much new information on Oswald's stay there which played a crucial in the development of his distorted personality. This work, in addition to new interviews conducted by Mailer with people in the US who had contact with him led Mailer, who originally believed that JFK's murder was probably part of a conspiracy, finally to come to the conclusion that Oswald was not just some ultimately unexplicable "nut" or "patsy", but that Oswald viewed himself as an international revolutionary, a potentially major figure in history (which he did indeed become for the wrong reasons), similar to the "international terrorists" plaguing the world today. Oswald had much in common with the murderers who perpetrated the atrocities of 9/11, i.e.
rage against humanity, ideological fanaticism (whether "religious" or "secular"), sexual frustration, etc. This helps to clear up the problem that was raised after the assassination in which people who knew Oswald said he "liked" the President. Terrorists do not kill people because they "dislike" them, but rather view murder as a "revolutionary act" directed to achieving a higher goal.
One important facet of the book is that Mailer quotes extensively from interviews of witnesses conductedy by the Warren Commission. Mailer points out that the memories of the witnesses were freshest at the time, and that memory tends to get fogged or distorted with the passage of time, particularly in this case where they are constantly being bombarded over the years by critical interviewers with an agenda.
This book is a major contribution to the historical record, and I am saying this as someone who is no particular fan of Mailer and his world view (as great a writer as he may be). I give him credit for being intellectually honest enough to change his views, although it should be pointed out that he doesn't reject the possibilty of a conspiracy (particularly in the case of Jack Ruby although he does admit that Ruby could not have started out that Sunday morning intending to kill Oswald), but he admits that there is no real evidence of one.
One significant weakness of the book is its lack of an index, but it is still a "must" book for those who want to understand this historical tragedy.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Better than a novel!!
Review: I found this to be a most enjoyable book. You don't have to be a conspiracy buff or a history fan to enjoy it (I am neither); it reads much better than the majority of contemporary novels being published today. Mailer takes documented facts and records to produce a coherent account of Oswald's life. I think "compelling" is an overworked word but in this case it really applies. I couldn't put this book down. Regardless of where you stand on the Kennedy assassination, you are bound to get caught up in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Marred in Two Areas
Review: I own the cassette version of this book. While I admire Mailer's attention to detail concerning Oswald's life in Russia and America, I feel the work is marred in two areas: first, I am not happy with the female narrator on the cassettes, whom I suspect is the author's daughter. The nepotism is especially hard to forgive because her affected Russian accent is not very good at all. Her reading seems somewhat superficial throughout, in fact. Second, while a level of intimate detail is necessary to establish the gritty truth of the story, I felt that some editing of the Oswald's personal lives was in order. Marina on Lee and their first few months of marriage: "You could boil him in water and he would still smell like Lee," and "Lee was always spoiling the air with his gasses." I'm sure these details could have been left out without impacting the story much, which is commendable in its detail and research. Historians of the Kennedy Assassination will fin! d much here on the background and psychological profile of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and exhaustive study.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Non-fiction novel inside the mind of Lee Harvey Oswald
Review: JFK and Dallas continue to fascinate. Who better to approach this ultimate mystery than America's developer of the non-fiction novel. Mailer and his team interviewed people who knew Oswald in Minsk, and the Marines. He excerpts from books and interviews with Marina Oswald. We know someone named Lee Harvey Oswald was in Dallas on that November day. After reading Norman Mailer's book, we probably know the inner workings of that person. Was it Lee Harvey Oswald? The one that his mother gave birth to? It's worth the long read.

Rating:
Summary: Among Norman's Very Best!
Review: Let's face it! There's been tons of (often far out) research in to LH Oswald that it's tough to decide which books on the subject are worth looking into. The number of theories/ideas/plots etc. could fill a library (and probably do). So it's a real treat to read a highly researched, authoritative, and slightly imaginative book that goes beyond the standard "Loser", "Stooge" or worse hypothesis, and goes into about every aspect of this 23 year old assassin's life, especially his problematic,very strange, time in the USSR.Remember, after some time in the Marines, he defected to Minsk at the age of 21. So what happened there? This book makes a valiant attempt to find out, and probably comes as close to the truth as we'll ever get! So put this at the top of the list in the top shelf in the library of JFK Assassination Books!

Rating:
Summary: Revealing Information
Review: Like most folks who read this book, I've read countless books on the JFK assassination. I have not read one like this though; it's in-depth, detailed study of Lee Harvey Oswald is unmatched anywhere. During the course of my own study and conclusions on the killing of our president, I am appalled by the number of people who believe Oswald was some poor innocent bystander who was framed. Mailer's analysis reveals Oswald for what he was: a legendary liar, thief, scum and murderer.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing Information
Review: Like most folks who read this book, I've read countless books on the JFK assassination. I have not read one like this though; it's in-depth, detailed study of Lee Harvey Oswald is unmatched anywhere. During the course of my own study and conclusions on the killing of our president, I am appalled by the number of people who believe Oswald was some poor innocent bystander who was framed. Mailer's analysis reveals Oswald for what he was: a legendary liar, thief, scum and murderer.