The Interloper, Peter Savodnik
The Interloper, Peter Savodnik
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The Interloper
Lee Harvey Oswald inside the Soviet Union

Author: Peter Savodnik

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 8 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2013


Synopsis

Lee Harvey Oswalds assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 remains one of the most horrifying and hotly debated crimes in American history. Just as perplexing as the assassination is the assassin himself; the twenty-four-year-old Oswalds hazy background and motivationsand his subsequent murder at the hands of Jack Rubymake him an intriguing yet frustratingly enigmatic figure. Because Oswald briefly defected to the Soviet Union, some historians allege he was a Soviet agent. But as Peter Savodnik shows in The Interloper, Oswalds time in the USSR reveals a stranger, more chilling story. Oswald ventured to Russia at the age of nineteen, after a failed stint in the US Marine Corps and a childhood spent shuffling from address to address with his unstable, needy mother. Like many of his generation, Oswald struggled for a sense of belonging in postwar American society, which could be materialistic, atomized, and alienating. The Soviet Union, with its promise of collectivism and camaraderie, seemed to offer an alternative. While traveling in Europe, Oswald slipped across the Soviet border, soon settling in Minsk, where he worked at a radio and television factory. But Oswald quickly became just as disillusioned with his adopted country as he had been with the United States. He spoke very little Russian, had difficulty adapting to the culture of his new home, and found few trustworthy friendsindeed most, it became clear, were informing on him to the KGB. After nearly three years, Oswald returned to America feeling utterly defeated and more alone than ever, and as Savodnik shows, he began to look for an outlet for his frustration and rage. Drawing on groundbreaking research, including interviews with Oswalds friends and acquaintances in Russia and the United States, The Interloper brilliantly evokes the shattered psyche not just of Oswald himself but also of the era he so tragically defined.

About Peter Savodnik

Peter Savodnik has written for Time, Wired, Slate, GQ, Harper’s, W, Condé Nast Traveler, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Washington Post, and many other publications. Formerly based in Moscow, he has traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union and reported on politics, crime, culture, travel, and fashion from that part of the world. He holds an MA in philosophy from the University of Chicago.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brett

This was such a fascinating read! Peter Savodnik did extensive research, conducted countless interviews by the people who knew him, and presented Oswald's diary entries to deliver a concise narrative on Lee Harvey Oswald. The narrative was a interwoven combination of biography and history lesson: th......more

Goodreads review by Julian

A tragic story indeed. Mr. Savodnik paints Oswald as a tragic villain rather than some evil mastermind wanting to bring Soviet domination by shooting JFK. Kind of a slow read, this book brings another side to the already complicated JFK murder story. A good book if you want to read it, but don't go......more

Goodreads review by Derek

Sort of an interesting story.......more

Goodreads review by Mark

Last November 22nd was the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy is someone who has long occupied a rarified position in my own life. I was born 17 years after Kennedy’s assassination, but his legacy has always felt quite present to me. (It probably help......more