Steps
In the cruel world
Yesterday I sent the letter below to Rich Klubeck, agent for Joel Coen. I had watched the Coen Brothers film, Burn after Reading, and I found some resonance between their treatment of Intelligence and some of the elements of farce I have put in my story — Mary Bancroft and William Harvey to name two.
Of course it’s one thing to have spy vs spy farce pay for your liposuction and another to have it murder a president. If anyone could handle that, the Coen Brothers could, was my thought in writing.
On Thursday I am meeting with a filmmaker in Provincetown. The agenda for our meeting is to ask a professional producer for an assessment of what lies ahead.
I promised a followup on the photograph of Lee. At this moment he had less than two hours to live (11:21 am - 1:13 pm). He is in the basement of the Dallas City jail and is being led to the car waiting to transfer him to the Dallas County jail. According to Robert J. Groden in whose book “the Search for Lee Harvey Oswald” this picture can be found, Lee is looking straight at Jack Ruby. He then looked away, apparently unconcerned by what he had seen. In less than thirty seconds Jack Ruby will charge and shoot Lee fatally. I agree with Groden’s interpretation. Lee is looking at someone/something he recognizes. He sees no threat.
(I say that as someone who takes about ten thousand pictures a year and has a keen sense of what each one is saying to me.)
And, for context, here is the rest of the image
The height of the season is approaching on Cape Cod. The schools are out. Families are flooding the roads to their vacations. In my studio I have hired two able assistants to help with the orders, declutter the space where I live and give me some time to ponder the connection between the frolics of the fox pups, the splashes of the toddlers in the low tide pools and the unfinished business of our cruel world.
A copy of my letter to Rich Klubeck is below
Query to Joel Coen agent
Loving Lee: Attn Joel Coen
Hello
I have figured out Lee Oswald and have written a novel and screenplay, the White Gloves Legend.
I just watched Burn after Reading the other night, and although I consider that goes too far, my treatment of the assassination of President Kennedy relies on a measure of farce, satire and mordant humor to help us through the murders of our President and of Lee.
Of course the CIA was a player.
I have a native of Minsk available to play Marina Oswald and I know that Frances McDormand would make a perfect Ruth Paine. I am looking for Lee. I wonder about Rami Malek.
My story draws on themes of betrayal drawn from leCarré and great families caught up in world events drawn from Tolstoy.
I know about the great family because I was married to a first cousin of Michael Paine for twenty five years and used to ride the launch to Naushon with him in the summers.
I know about the betrayal of Lee because I’ve read almost everything written about the assassination and I have talked with people who knew Lee.
If you would like to know more about me and the story you can check my Substack and/or request a draft copy of the novel.
Thanks
Robert Manz
Robert Manz
1 Jonathan Bourne Drive
Suite 6
Pocasset MA 02559
774-269-6846
Www.robertmanz.net
Sent from my iPhone