Mrs. Paine's Garage: And the Murder of John F. Kennedy
Ruth Paine befriended Marina Oswald and found Marina's husband, Lee  Harvey, a job in the Texas State Book Depository. Thomas Mallon'sMrs.  Paine's Garagerevisits the brief intersection of these three lives--what he  calls a "collision of innocent intentions and unforeseen enormities." Mallon  details the nine-month Paine/Oswald friendship and its rapid post-assassination  disintegration. He then sketches Paine's life since (from her testimony before  various congressional committees to her current low-profile residence in  Florida) and summarizes Paine's place in the churning, obsessive world of  conspiracy theorists with snippets of humor. (Former New Orleans district  attorney Jim Garrison is "Elmer Gantry with subpoena power.") This extended  footnote to a footnote to a tragedy, though losing focus and energy by its end,  is brisk, revelatory and even-handed. It also handily dispels several seemingly  ominous coincidences about the events of November 22, 1963.--H.  O'Billovitch