Mrs. Paine's Garage: And the Murder of John F. Kennedy [Paperback]

Thomas Mallon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest Book | Publication Date: November 10, 2003

Exactly forty years have passed since Ruth Hyde Paine, a Quaker housewife in suburban Dallas, offered shelter and assistance to a young man named Lee Harvey Oswald and his Russian wife, Marina. Mrs. Paine's Garage is the tragic story of this well-intentioned woman who found Oswald the job that put him six floors above Dealey Plaza-into which, on November 22, 1963, he fired a rifle he'd kept hidden inside Mrs. Paine's house. But this is also a tale of survival and resilience: the story of a devout, open-hearted woman who weathered a whirlwind of suspicion and betrayal, and who refused to allow her connection to the calamity of that November to destroy her life. From these stories Thomas Mallon has fashioned an account of generosity and secrets, tragic might-have-beens and eerie coincidences, that unfolds with a gripping inevitability.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ruth Paine befriended Marina Oswald and found Marina's husband, Lee Harvey, a job in the Texas State Book Depository. Thomas Mallon's Mrs. 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In his fiction, Mallon (Henry and Clara, etc.) has looked at history's accidental tourists, ordinary citizens thrust by happenstance into the swirl of cataclysmic events. This time around, he turns a journalistic eye toward a central surviving figure in the Kennedy assassination. In 1963, Ruth Paine, now in her late 60s, was a recently separated housewife hoping to improve her Russian. As a result, she offered to shelter a Russian woman, Marina Oswald, her children while her husband, Lee Harvey, sought work. In the end, Paine, a committed Quaker, unwittingly provided Oswald a sniper's nest she helped him find employment at the Texas School Book Depository and storage space, her garage, for arguably the 20th-century's most infamous murder weapon. The views on her association with the Oswalds have run the gamut, from nave do-gooder to CIA conspirator. Here we meet up with some old faces, seen now through Paine's eyes, such as Jim Garrison, the overzealous New Orleans district attorney determined to uncover a conspiracy. Mallon follows the strange trajectory of Paine's well-intentioned life, from her first meeting with the Oswalds to her voluminous testimony before the Warren Commission to her pursuit of an estranged Marina following the events. Mallon also generates a variety of delicious "what-if" scenarios and "small-world" coincidences. There are a few brambles to hack through at the outset, awkward chronological zigzags and family histories that are tedious in spots. But these patches are soon smoothed out. While not a heavy-hitting historical tome, this may introduce some fresh air on the vast storehouse of Kennedy works. Ruth Paine's is ultimately a human story, the tale of one woman living in America.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (November 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156027550
• ISBN-13: 978-0156027557
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time-, January 10, 2011

By 

Eric Lund (Charlottesville, Va) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mrs. Paine's Garage: And the Murder of John F. Kennedy (Paperback)

As stated by a previous reviewer, this book reveals the author to have a near zero grasp on even the basic details of the JFK assassination- yet there are numerous rather mocking and sarcastic references to "buffs, theorists, assassinologists etc" with no basis of reference for why he dismisses all of them out of hand. Short on facts and long on psychoanalysis, the book is nearly painful to read- especially the post assassination world of Ruth Paine which takes up the final few chapters. In the end this woman, who lived a simple Quaker lifestyle, was uninteresting. The afternoon of the assassination police removed "file cabinets full" of letters and collected data... what was in there, who did it belong to? Why the author never asked the question is beyond me- and so is this book.

18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of our lives, January 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs. Paine's Garage: and the Murder of John F. Kennedy (Hardcover)

A brilliant book; this has stayed with me in the weeks since I read it. I'm not an assassination buff, and if you'd asked me, I would have said I wasn't that interested in the subject. But the New Yorker piece was so good I HAD to read the book--and the book was even more remarkable. In the life of Mrs. Paine, Mallon has found the perfect vessel to explore the coincidences that haunt every life, the huge resonances one seemingly small choice--befriending a stranger, offering succor to someone in need--can have, and the unintended horrors the best-intentioned acts can wreak. That the book is so elegantly economical, and so beautifully written, makes it that much easier to see the deep story running just below the story of Mrs. Paine's life. Truly this has changed the way I think about innocence and evil.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting character study, April 6, 2011

By 

Phil S. (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mrs. Paine's Garage: And the Murder of John F. Kennedy (Paperback)

If you've wondered where Mrs. Paine has been, and what she has been thinking since that tragic week in her life and in the life of the Country, you will be fascinated. If you are looking for some small detail to inspire new research on 11-22-63, you will enjoy this book, but you will probably consider donating it to the Library.

The writer is not out the analyze the events at Dealey Plaza, just to study the effect on one very prominent individual, a quiet, studious person of Quaker descent, who met her husband at a folk dance in 1955.

The back jacket panel states affirnatively that Lee Harvey Oswald *was* the assailant that Friday; the text states that he *was* the indivudal who plotted and attempted the assassination of General Walker, months before. In 2011, even the most casual JFK researcher is not 100% convinced of either occurence. So the "Conspiracy" side won't gain much more than a light poolside read.

One bit which jumped out at me: Oswald's note with instructions if he persihes or is away for awhile, mentions that the Red Cross can help Marina and child. Did LHO or the CIA actually *contact* said organization, prior to 11-22-63?

Disappointing lack of time-line photos of the book's subject.