11/04/2013
Swanson’s attempt to recount the events leading up to November 22, 1963 and its aftermath in a coherent narrative is nowhere near as successful as his Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. Critical readers will wish that his prefatory note had detailed his use of sources, and why Marina Oswald was for him an unimpeachable witness. In the absence of such an explanation the opening sections, descriptions of her husband’s failed attempt on the life of right-wing General Edwin Walker, and extensive quoted dialogue will raise questions of whether Swanson has sacrificed accuracy for dramatic effect. While the author’s intended purpose is above all to “resurrect the mood” of the time, his writing is repetitive and can lean to hokey at times. Again and again as the fatal day nears, the reader is forewarned that such and such occasion will prove to be the last. There are also major assumptions at play in this retelling—most problematically Swanson’s treatment of the Warren Commission. Even those who accept the verdict that Oswald acted alone will wonder why Swanson states that this finding was never contradicted by official government investigations when records state otherwise. In the end, Swanson sacrifices too much in the name of storytelling and the result is an oversimplified retelling. (Nov.)
End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Narrated by Richard Thomas
James L. SwansonUnabridged — 9 hours, 49 minutes
End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Narrated by Richard Thomas
James L. SwansonUnabridged — 9 hours, 49 minutes
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Overview
Here, for the first time in decades, is a gripping, minute-by-minute account of the day President John F. Kennedy was shot. In End of Days, James Swanson reveals Lee Harvey Oswald's bizarre history of violence and follows John and Jacqueline Kennedy on their fateful Dallas motorcade ride. Swanson takes us to the sixth-floor Texas Book Depository window to look through Oswald's rifle sights, re-creates the last hours of the doomed assassin, and the day of national mourning for the president that followed, culminating in a funeral that united the country. Combining extensive research with his unparalleled storytelling abilities, Swanson turns the events of one of the darkest days of the twentieth century into a pulse-pounding thriller that will remain the definitive account of the assassination for years to come.
Editorial Reviews
A master of the form, James Swanson has brought his formidable storytelling skills to bear on another tragic turning point in American history. His treatment of Dallas 1963 is grand narrative at its finest.” — JON MEACHAM - Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
“HISTORY AS TRUE-CRIME STORY. As he did in his bestselling Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Swanson combines stellar research with a brisk, transporting narrative.” — Washingtonian Magazine
End of Days is a fresh, modern contribution to the literature about one of the most heartbreaking crimes in history.” — Washington Post
“End of Days reads like a thriller while providing meticulous detail—the true-crime counterpart to Don DeLillo’s masterful, speculative novelization, Libra.” — Omnivoracious
“Absorbing and fast-paced.” — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
“Skillful... Authoritative... Swanson’s narrative gifts inject fresh suspense into the story of JFK’s slaying.” — National Review
“With a gift for storytelling, an ability to juxtapose events in the lives of killer and victim and an eye for the revelatory detail, Swanson offers a gripping account... the energy and devotion he brings to this endeavor rekindles the emotions of a half-century ago...” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A crisp, readable recital of the events surrounding the run-up to Nov. 22 and the aftermath.” — Dallas Morning News
“Swanson makes history read like a crime thriller, vividly re-creating the details surrounding the shooting through the perspectives of the killer, the victim, and those closest to them.” — Parade Magazine
A crisp, readable recital of the events surrounding the run-up to Nov. 22 and the aftermath.
Swanson makes history read like a crime thriller, vividly re-creating the details surrounding the shooting through the perspectives of the killer, the victim, and those closest to them.
HISTORY AS TRUE-CRIME STORY. As he did in his bestselling Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, Swanson combines stellar research with a brisk, transporting narrative.
End of Days reads like a thriller while providing meticulous detail—the true-crime counterpart to Don DeLillo’s masterful, speculative novelization, Libra.
A master of the form, James Swanson has brought his formidable storytelling skills to bear on another tragic turning point in American history. His treatment of Dallas 1963 is grand narrative at its finest.
End of Days is a fresh, modern contribution to the literature about one of the most heartbreaking crimes in history.
Absorbing and fast-paced.
With a gift for storytelling, an ability to juxtapose events in the lives of killer and victim and an eye for the revelatory detail, Swanson offers a gripping account... the energy and devotion he brings to this endeavor rekindles the emotions of a half-century ago...
Skillful... Authoritative... Swanson’s narrative gifts inject fresh suspense into the story of JFK’s slaying.
End of Days is a fresh, modern contribution to the literature about one of the most heartbreaking crimes in history.
Swanson makes history read like a crime thriller, vividly re-creating the details surrounding the shooting through the perspectives of the killer, the victim, and those closest to them.
Skillful... Authoritative... Swanson’s narrative gifts inject fresh suspense into the story of JFK’s slaying.
Absorbing and fast-paced.
2013-10-03
For the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Swanson (Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse, 2010, etc.) breathlessly re-creates the tragedy. Drawing on the decades of technological advances that have deepened the knowledge of the assassination, the author presents the stunning unfolding of the event in punchy, poignant vignettes, following one character after another to the inexorable conclusion. "Today we know much more about the assassination of President Kennedy than the members of the Warren commission did," acknowledging the organization appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the murder and present its findings nearly a year later. Swanson's tidy, concise character summaries give a terrific sense of the dramatis personae in just a few strokes: JFK, impossibly brilliant and charismatic, overcoming enormous obstacles to his rising star; stylish Jackie, emerging from mourning the death of newborn Patrick, agreeing to accompany her husband to Dallas as part of the campaigning swing through Texas, holding up beforehand for Jack the outfits she had chosen to "show these Texans what good taste really is"; Lee Harvey Oswald, the "lifelong loser and nobody," planning to catch a bus after killing the president; and LBJ, incredibly poised under the strain of those first few hours, especially regarding his graciousness toward Jackie. Swanson manages a sympathetic, human portrait of Marina, Oswald's long-suffering Russian wife, and excoriates the Secret Service for many bad decisions--e.g., the immediate washing out of the limo and the rush to take JFK's body back to Washington, D.C., before a proper criminal autopsy was performed, an oversight that would "come to haunt the history of John Kennedy's assassination for the next fifty years." Clarity has finally lifted the lingering suspicion of conspiracy in favor of the creation of a shining Kennedy legacy. Chilling, gruesome and riveting.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173574268 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 11/12/2013 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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