Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery

791 pp. [xxxvii] "A portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald is based on interviews with former acquaintances and research gathered from Minsk, where Oswald hid for more than two years after defecting to the Soviet Union." "The book includes an exhaustive examination of Oswald's movements over the years, and particularly in the months, leading up to Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, and Oswald's own death two days later. Knitted into the story of Oswald's life are Mailer's suppositions on his state of mind and motivations. The Oswald that Mailer depicts is a single-minded and vain individual convinced of his own destiny and importance who suffers a series of defeats and frustrations, and who killed the President in a desperate search for achievement."