Word: libra
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...that, in Libra, is precisely what Don DeLillo has done. In a note at the end, he admits that some may find a novel on this subject "one more gloom in a chronicle of unknowing." But, he continues, "because this book makes no claim to literal truth, because it is only itself, apart and complete, readers may find refuge here -- a way of thinking about the assassination without being constrained by half-facts or overwhelmed by possibilities, by the tide of speculation that widens with the years." Unfortunately, this argument wants things both ways; a book can hardly be "only...
...Libra is, in fact, another conspiracy theory, although considerably more literate and entertaining than most. Imagine a small cadre within the CIA angered over the Kennedy Administration's bungling of the Bay of Pigs invasion and worried that J.F.K. is making some secret accommodation with Castro. One spook hatches an idea: "We need an electrifying event." Public outrage will be fueled by an attempt on the President's life, one that can be convincingly traced to Cuba. There is an added wrinkle: "But we don't hit Kennedy. We miss...
Given these preoccupations, it was probably inevitable ("There's a pattern in things") that DeLillo would get around to the assassination, that nexus of | paranoia. But it is difficult to see exactly what Libra adds to this event, aside from some temporary diversion. Its argument, that the plot to kill the President was even wider and more sinister than previously imagined, will seem credible chiefly to the already converted, among whom are surely people who also believe that Martians are sending them messages through the fillings in their teeth. There is a simpler possibility that Libra inventively skirts: a frustrated...
...ears. It was Sakhmet, the family cat, sitting on my face. Might today be the Twelfth of Tybi, which commemorates the massacre perpetrated by the Feline Goddess of ancient Egypt? It was too horrible to contemplate. "Get out of here, Sakhmet!" I shouted, sitting bolt upright. My wife Libra opened an eye. Her scales of justice, as usual, were at the ready. "About your behavior at the party last night...
...Libra was in the TV room. As she flicked on the set I saw the shadowy outline of two talking heads. "Oh, look," she said, siren-like. "PBS has a rerun of your favorite show. Want to watch...