Libra

I'm really liking Libra. It's fun how the narration skips around from snapshot to snapshot--most quite vivid an creatively described. (I like his descriptions of the subway. Subways are very aesthetically distinctive places.) It's a little confusing, but I actually feel like the way that Delillo intersperses Lee's readings and thoughts with real-life experiences at various unspecified moments captures the distance that Lee keeps from the outside world--and the reality he finds in his books--very well.
"Richard Carlson as Herb Phil-brick, ordinary citizen, member of the Communist Party, undercover agent for the FBI. She tapped her fingers on the palm of her hand. Rise and shine. He saw a guy sitting backwards on a motorcycle, smoking a cigarette and looking into space," In this passage you can really feel that Lee's experiences (in this case his mother waking him up) are simply an insignificant nuisance; a brief distraction from his fantasies of joining a communist group and jumping across rooftops in dark clothing.
This description sort of makes him sound delusional, but honestly, I like little Lee. He seems like a smart guy. He's a little tortured and eccentric (and arrogant and inconsiderate), but sympathetic to be sure.
We watched a video in history composed of clips of news coverage during Kennedy's assassination. Just going off of vibes, Lee Harvey Oswald seemed like a pretty normal guy. I don't think anyone else in the class felt this way, but he seemed pretty intelligent, and somehow the most modern in his attitudes of anyone in the movie. You know how news people from the 60's have weird accents and seem kind of artificial? He wasn't like that. In fact, he seemed much more sane than he comes across in the book. He just kept asking for a shower and complaining that the cops were denying his rights. Maybe he was too calm, I don't know, but he certainly wasn't overtly insane.

The main way in which I haven't been charmed by the kid is his strange attitude towards his mother. He seems to hate her, which I don't understand and I'm sure she doesn't deserve. He also has a weird need for control, and the grinning while he's being punched is unsettling. And he may be interested in Marxism mostly for personal reasons (desiring fame, seclusion, what-have-you), rather than genuine social concern. But doesn't everyone believe what they believe for personal reasons on some level?
Anyway, there are some troubling aspects to his character, but I feel like the point that DeLillo is trying (and in my opinion succeeding) to get across is that Lee, however flawed, is not really at fault (I mean Lee the character, not Lee the person. The book doesn't seem to take its theories too seriously). He's just a pawn. Weirdly enough, the people scheming don't seem so at fault either.  They don't intend to kill Kennedy. (Although honestly I think that intending to lie to the entire American public in order to galvanize them against communism is almost more sinister than killing a single man. That's large-scale oppression, and given the awful things that have happened in this country and in others in the name of the American fight against communism, it's pretty unacceptable.)

A little observation: It says no one knows why Heindel goes by "Hidell" and then, a couple pages later at random the author throws in, "Hidell means don't tell". I don't know what to take from this other than the fact that secrets are a big theme in this book.