Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery (1995)

In [11/22/63] [[Stephen King]] cites Mailer's Oswald's Tale as a source, and since that book has been on my shelf for many, many years, I picked it up next.

Mailer's study is extremely well-documented--sources range from all the testimony before the Warren Commission to interviews with the Oswalds' neighbors in Russia, as well as interviews with Marina and her family. The book is not considered true nonfiction, however, because there's a fair amount of supposition and projection. What is incontrovertible, and what particularly struck me, was how erractic Oswald's actions were through-out his life.

I could see how greatly King's book drew from Mailer's book. To that extent, having just read the King book, I felt I was reading some of the same things over again. Mailer concludes, as does King that Oswald acted alone. I'm not convinced though. ( )

An strong narrative of the life and obsessions of Lee Harvey Oswald. Like many people I find something screwy about the whole Kennedy Assassination and associated investigations. But Mailer makes a strong case for a long gunman, and a terribly troubled (crazy) one at that. That being said, you needn't be a believer int eh lone gunman theory to find Oswald's bizarre life interesting. ( )

Like new hardcover, like new dust jacket ( )

Forget Crossfire and read this instead! ( )