I really, really tried to write about this. Ended up with five pages. Single-spaced. Sent me on a bit of a manic spell that I’m only recently getting over. I wish I was joking. So, in the spirit of self-preservation, I gave up.

I’ll just say that I think Libra gets to the heart of modern American life more than any other book I’ve read. This is a country where citizens are sentenced at birth, to rooms and lives alike. Oswald’s struggle, our struggle, is for self-determination in what “Oswald” calls “the territory of no-choice.”

The characters here are defined. They do not define themselves. They are refractions of a single American experience, defined in relation to the empire. They are creations placed within an overarching narrative, just as a “Lee Harvey Oswald” was created in documents and dossiers as means to an end.

Language, the word, can be a tool towards liberation or a tool for oppression. It can be appropriated to (mis-)inform our understanding of what is and is not possible. It functions both below and above the surface.

The struggle to define ourselves is a linguistic one.

These were the general ideas in my draft. But I couldn’t get it down. So I’m replacing my monograph with this: Libra is a great book. Fans of great books might enjoy this book.