The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald by Alex Cox


The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald
Title : The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1936239582
ISBN-10 : 9781936239580
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 231
Publication : First published May 17, 2013

President John F. Kennedy was said to have been murdered by a lone crazed gunman in a Dallas motorcade a half-century ago. The accused killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was also murdered under mysterious circumstances just a couple days later.

Alex Cox, like most of the American and British public, does not buy into the moth-eaten establishment tale about the regicide. The President and the Provocateur is not the usual conspiracy volume, and is structured almost like the film Rashomon, including varying views of the story with different fonts and sizes.

The Kennedy assassination saga has obsessed filmmaker Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy) for most of his life. The President and The Provocateur is Cox’s informed meditation on the conspiratorial tale, and as such is an imaginative rendering of the parallel structures of the lives of John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Cox's films are available from the renowned distributors Criterion, the BFI, and Microcinema. They include Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, and Walker.

The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald Reviews

  • Willy Boy

    A great primer for the Dallas affair. Particularly recommended for those new to the subject. The 'parallel lives' bit doesn't quite come off, in the sense that the two individuals were as different as could be. They are more like opposites that meet than in parallel to each other. But in juxtaposing the pair, the bizarre circumstances of Oswald's short life are thrown into striking relief. Kennedy slightly longer life was no ordinary thing either, but only involved organised crime, WWII, filling the shoes of a deceased favourite son and sexual liaisons with film stars. Even a sober biography of Oswald features supposed defection to Russia and return to US, false front pro-Cuba groups, doubles or duplicates, a weird staged photo with a fake baby, absurdly self incrimination ... In a sense, this is the great JFK/Dallas film - reads like a thriller, with a tight, propulsive narrative laced with weird and poignant incident. We arrive in Dallas on Nov 22nd. With all the chess pieces in place, Jack states pointedly and presciently to his secret service detail. 'it wouldn't be so hard to kill me. Just put a man with a rifle on one of those rooftops ...' as he begins the day that will culminate in his execution. A great read for a long train journey

  • Victoria Johnston

    Well researched and well written, the author takes nothing at face value and details the parallels between Kennedy and Oswald well. There are numerous conspiracy theories in respect of the Kennedy assassination - and no doubt everyone has an opinion - I personally disbelieve that Oswald was the killer - or at least that he acted alone. This book aims to try and open the readers eyes to alternate views and holes in the prosecutions case. It is a good introduction to the history but also serves as a good read for those familiar with it - wanting to learn a bit more.

  • Mike

    This is a good book with some good research.Unfortunately though the death of JFK is still a conspiracy in this book and the only People/Person that knows who assassinated JFK are the People/Person that were involved and most of the people alive at the time are dead now so we will probably never know who it was.

  • Elliott

    I struggled with rating this book, since while it had some really good information and sources there are some really terrible errors. Alex Cox puts down Kennedy's birth year as 1919-he was actually born two years prior. Kennedy did not order the coup against Diem that was an entirely unauthorized CIA operation. Finally and this gets reported by a lot of historians too- JFK did not call himself a jelly donut! To settle a pet peeve of mine: Berliners are what they are called in the United States, they don't really sell them in Germany and even then it's a regional name in this country. Besides "ich bin ein Berliner" is one of two equally correct ways to state "I am a citizen of Berlin." Also some of Cox's info regarding Kennedy's Civil Rights record appears to be ill grounded by a cursory search through his sources. Kennedy was a fairly straightforward Cold Warrior in some aspects, but Cox ignores his moves towards détente.

  • Anne Cullen-wright

    Very well written and the research deep. Raised interesting issues and fascinating contradictions