Libra was acclaimed by book critics. Writing for The New York Times, novelist Anne Tyler referred to the book as DeLillo's "richest" novel and said that the "herringbone plot line serves to make the most humdrum occurrence seem suddenly meaningful, laden with dark purpose." She praised the author as "inventing, with what seems uncanny perception, the interior voice that each character might use to describe his own activities. [...] That Mr. DeLillo has been able to make his readers see the story the same way - that finally we're interested less in the physical events of the assassination than in the pitiable and stumbling spirit underlying them - proves Libra to be a triumph."[5]
A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote, "The novel bears dissection on many levels, but is, taken whole, a seamless, brilliant work of compelling fiction. What makes Libra so unsettling is DeLillo's ability to integrate literary criticism into the narrative, commenting throughout on the nature and conventions of fiction itself without disturbing the flow of his story." The reviewer argued that the "subtle juxtaposition of the author's version of events with the Zapruder film" causes the work to "raise meaningful questions on the relationship between fiction and truth."[6]
Robert Towers of The New York Review of Books praised Libra as "exceptionally interesting" and stated that DeLillo "imaginatively traces the lines of force converging to produce those echoing shots that 'broke the back of the American century'."
Adam Begley of the London Review of Books deemed it the author's best book up to that point, praising him for avoiding caricature in portrayals of disturbed individuals such as Ferrie and Ruby and "[leaving] room for pity, if not for compassion." Begley also argued that DeLillo "never seems overwhelmed or constrained by the facts of the case. Nor is he vexed by contradictions and omissions. Libra displays his genius for creative paranoia: he fills the gaps in the record with his imagination, spinning a brilliant web out of a heap of improbable coincidences."[7]
A more moderately positive review appeared in Kirkus Reviews, where the reviewer wrote that "DeLillo mars the book a little with overly portentous intellectual meditations (by one of the CIA operatives) on the nature of plots--murderous or fictional--and by Jack Ruby's hopelessly awkward Jewish-gangster manner of speaking. But these are flaw-specks in a book that is genuinely dread-filled--a story that everyone knows he doesn't really know, and which DeLillo worries, and prods, and deepens with sure artistry."[8]
Merle Rubin of The Christian Science Monitor stated, "DeLillo is deft enough at blending fact and fiction - at weaving many of the numberless known clues into a plausible narrative soaked in evocative atmosphere. Yet he cannot muster the Dostoyevskian depth and resonance that sometimes enable a writer to present a fiction more compelling than the real event that inspired it."[9]
Norman Mailer was a great admirer of Libra and said that the book had inspired him to write Oswald's Tale, his 1995 biography of Oswald.[10]
In 2007, Oswald was described in New York as DeLillo's greatest character.[11] In a 2008 retrospective, Troy Jollimore argued, "In his imaginative and sympathetic portrait of Oswald, of Jack Ruby, of Win Everett and Larry Parmenter and the other conspirators, DeLillo displays a deep understanding of how history really works, how much of it is accidental, unintended."[12] In 2018, Jeffrey Somers wrote, "The Kennedy assassination is an event DeLillo might have invented if it hadn't actually happened. [...] Sometimes this one is overshadowed by other titles, but arguably it and White Noise are DeLillo's masterworks."[13]
