The Loser’s Loser

Abstract

This reprint of Robert Stone’s review of Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery, first published in the New York Review of Books (June 22, 1995) and reprinted by permission, reads Lee Harvey Oswald as a “loser’s loser,” a lesser dramatic figure than Gary Gilmore of The Executioner’s Song. Stone praises the book’s use of KGB files and Minsk interviews to portray Soviet life and its sympathetic treatment of Oswald and Marina, and credits Mailer for clearly separating novelistic speculation from evidence. He notes that Mailer concludes Oswald likely acted alone and closes on Mailer’s preference for tragedy over absurdity.