THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JEFF ARMSTRONG
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
PLEASE TRUST ME, at least long enough to read one review. I don't take books about the JFK assassination lightly, but I'll recommend Norman Mailer's new one.
On my 10th birthday, I ran home from school screaming. Someone had just shot President Kennedy down in Texas, and I happened to like Kennedy a lot.
I can't make exact sense of it, but I've been running and screaming - at least on the inside - ever since. I've run to every book, article, TV special and movie on the subject that I could find; the screaming has shaped the very way I view things.
Mailer confronts my obsession - and less extreme interest in the case - in ``Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery'' (Random House, 828 pp., $30) - and I feel specially qualified to tell you about it.
Mailer's project began in 1993 with an invitation to research Oswald's years in Russia. The collapse of the Soviet Union made possible an opportunity too good to resist: exclusive access to files, transcripts and interview subjects then ``willing and able'' to talk.
``Volume One'' of this tale, ``Oswald in Minsk with Marina,'' is a detailed account of Oswald's struggles to get in, fit in, and get out of Russia, where he finds mostly disillusionment, the sad, steady story of his life. Mailer's research is first-rate. Volume One is almost a book in itself, and a fine, scholarly contribution.
Not only do we get a new look at Oswald, but surprising insights into his wife, Marina (less innocent about life and less victimized than we once thought). Revealing interviews with Oswald's acquaintances, co-workers and Soviet officials (including his KGB tails) offer a fascinating look at life in Cold War Russia.
In Volume Two, ``Oswald in America,'' Mailer shifts away from researcher/interviewer and asserts his authorial voice about the ``Oswald problem.''
As he correctly points out, Oswald has been forever trapped in the varied scenarios of others, from those who want to present him as a passive, bit player in a huge conspiracy befitting the Kennedy target (filmmaker Oliver Stone), to those who need to make every piece of evidence against him conclusive (``Case Closed'' author Gerald Posner).
Mailer claims to have entered the debate with no fixed conclusions, only a desire to understand the ``nature of the man'' and thus, ``avoid plots he did not fit.'' He argues that human behavior isn't always logical, and performance often fortuitous and inconsistent. So questions about Oswald's opportunity and ability to squeeze off those difficult shots, or why he would pick Kennedy (whom he was said to admire), are no more important than discovering whether he had ``the soul of a killer.'' His approach has validity and power.
For the author, ``the immense dimensions of Oswald's case'' created a ``special form of its own.'' Volume Two is a ``novelistic'' mix of non-fiction, fiction and speculation, under the ``rubric of mystery.''
It works. Assimilating others' work with his new Minsk research, Mailer presents one of the most insightful studies of Oswald yet. And, remarkably, without dismissing reasonable doubt about conspiracies and cover-ups, he makes an eloquent case for a lone-gunman theory.
Free of any need to indict or acquit, and able to distinguish a loner from a loser, Mailer presents a balanced, fair appraisal of Oswald as a protagonist in history. In ways, he grants Oswald more human dignity than others have. For example, he takes the liberty to clean up Oswald's childish writings (caused by dyslexia, not low intellect) and to show a young man in command of his thoughts.
Ultimately, Mailer's Oswald emerges as a tragic figure, and this is key to his agenda. For Mailer, ``Who Killed JFK?'' threatens something much deeper than faith in our institutions: ``If such a nonentity destroyed the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, then a world of disproportion engulfs us, and we live in a world that is absurd.''
Many readers won't follow Mailer's emphasis on tragedy and absurdity, or accept his position on Oswald that JFK's death ``is more tolerable if we can perceive his killer as tragic rather than absurd,'' but I think he is on to something. I know something dramatic has been swirling through my head since that day I ran home from school.
From the last words that Kennedy heard before the shots - Nellie Connally's ``Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you'' - to Oswald's murder while in heavy ``protective'' custody, to the official conclusions hinging on the improbable zigzagging of a ``magic'' bullet, an air of absurdity has surrounded the event.
And both deaths that weekend were tragically absurd: the ultimate somebody playing to the crowds from an open limousine (Kennedy and his staff decided to forgo the protective bubbletop); and the doomed nobody, who if he killed Kennedy for recognition, seeking to make his mark on the world, lived to enjoy only two days of attention, downplaying himself as ``just a patsy.''
Years ago private demons drove me to find Lee Harvey Oswald's grave. The staff at the old Fort Worth cemetery, instructed to discourage visitors like me, answered, ``Lee Harvey Who?''
I had a crude map, however, and as I wandered, I tried not to disturb the peace of an old man tending to a grave. But he interrupted my search, calling out, ``What are you doing, son, looking for Oswald?'' After he led me right to the marker, I thanked him, and he said, ``It's OK. I bring people here all the time. It kind of keeps me busy.''
After all these years, the JFK assassination still keeps a lot of us busy. With ``Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery,'' Mailer has enriched the subject with his new research, fresh insights and accomplished presentation. MEMO: Jeff Armstrong is a writer who lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Norman Mailer delivers fresh research and surprising insights in
``Oswald's Tale.''
by CNB