Guy Davenport on Fiction

the basis of this that Wills and Demaris demolish the claim of Mark Lane and the other conspiratorialists that Jack Ruby was part of a larger and more sinister plot to kill Mr. Kennedy.

The chapter “The Communists or the John Birch Society or Both,” alone is worth the price of the book. But if you only read that you’d miss a small masterpiece, a vignette on Dallas, What It Is Like, and Who Runs It. Demaris and Wills, a reporting (Demaris) and writing (Wills) team, have turned out a job of reportorial reconstruction that stands head and shoulders, in style as well as in content, above the dozens of other books that have been published about the events of November 22, 23 and 24, 1963. “Ruby,” the authors conclude, “was not a malicious man; indeed, he was a notably generous one, open-hearted, open-handed. But a punch was his only exclamation point. Not a malicious man—simply one who killed.” Fiction Frightfully Good, I’m Sure

GD

About the Author

Guy Davenport

Featured Tags

the basis of this that Wills and Demaris demolish the claim of Mark Lane and the other conspiratorialists that Jack Ruby was part of a larger and more sinister plot to kill Mr. Kennedy.

The chapter “The Communists or the John Birch Society or Both,” alone is worth the price of the book. But if you only read that you’d miss a small masterpiece, a vignette on Dallas, What It Is Like, and Who Runs It. Demaris and Wills, a reporting (Demaris) and writing (Wills) team, have turned out a job of reportorial reconstruction that stands head and shoulders, in style as well as in content, above the dozens of other books that have been published about the events of November 22, 23 and 24, 1963. “Ruby,” the authors conclude, “was not a malicious man; indeed, he was a notably generous one, open-hearted, open-handed. But a punch was his only exclamation point. Not a malicious man—simply one who killed.” Fiction Frightfully Good, I’m Sure