But Really...Who is Lee?

We have gone through 400 some pages of dense, conversation heavy text and we still don't have a clear picture as to who Lee Harvey Oswald is. We meet Lee as a spunky, Soviet-loving young man and follow him through his exploits as he himself tries to find who he is. Yet, we also are keen  to pick up on Lee's innate desire for attention and the lengths he will go to find it. We also were able to deduce how Lee's actions work perfectly with the plot to kill Kennedy. However, I can't help but pause when Lee is furiously trying to figure out what he looks like while trying to avoid the police after shooting JFK. At that point, Lee realizes what he has done and snaps out of his daze. Really? It took him THIS long to figure what he was drafted into doing?

Intentional or not, to me it seemed as if Libra is set up as one giant dream sequence (at least for Lee's storyline). From New York all the way to before the first shot was fired, I got the impression that Lee was just drifting through life. He never fully understood that his actions had consequences. Perhaps this behavior is the result of how he grew up, never being reprimanded and being pretty weird in general. It's only after he sees the President slump down that he actually figures what he's done and actually realizes that there are real consequences to his actions.

Nonetheless, we get so many personalities out of Oswald and this is mirrored in his many identities. While reading the novel, I almost wish he had one of those toys from Inception to remind him of who and where he was. Anyway, we get many different sides of Lee that it is hard to pin down exactly what is going on. I guess that's what actually makes this book worth reading. Despite the dry conservations, the unexpected behavior of Lee is always something that spices up the story despite it being infuriating that we can never pin down an actual picture of who he really is. Even after this epic, I'm not quite sure I can confidently say I know exactly who (Libra's) Lee Harvey Oswald is.