Are Books Like Libra Harmful?
Libra ’s subject matter made me question the ethics of historical fiction when I first started reading it. Something about using JFK’s assassination for fiction felt a bit off. We’ve had other historical figures in previous books, such as Evelyn Nesbit and Houdini in E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime , but political assassinations felt a bit too touchy. I think what initially made me feel iffy about E.L. Doctorow's depiction of Lee Oswald was how he set him up to be perceived as an underdog. The book starts off depicting Lee’s hardships, namely his bullying. He skipped school often due to bullying, and when he did, his bullies beat him up because they thought it was funny Lee sounded like a Yankee (DeLillo 32-33). Although I felt bad for Lee, I couldn’t help but feel like DeLillo was in a way trying to sympathize with someone most readers knew to later be a killer. I remember later having a discussion in class about whether we found Oswald likeable or not. Diza was not super fond of hi...