| ||||||||||||
|
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
One fact helped to put the trip into perspective for me. If you have a hand held calculator nearby, pick it up. The chances are the computing power you hold in your hand surpasses that available to the crew in their effort to come home. The movie demonstrated this with slid rules and math completed with paper and pencil. The whole event is almost unimaginable.
The book is worth reading because as hard as it may be to fathom, the actual trip was even more hazardous, the problems even more numerous than the movie portrayed. I am not suggesting the movie was flawed, only that it was limited by time for telling the entire story.
I met Mr. John L. Swigert when I was quite young. My memories are limited but I have a picture that was taken with him that is a treasure. Several years ago I heard Mr. Jim Lovell speak, and his remarks confirmed that the actual trip held hazards the movie did not depict. As he related parts of the story the impression was of a man who was always in control, a leader, and utterly confident in the men he flew with, and those they relied so heavily upon at Houston and other ground facilities. There was nothing about him that gave the impression that what he did was special. He is part of that "Greatest Generation", and he represents that group faultlessly.
I was able to meet him after the dinner, and I had my photo of Mr. Swigert with me. He was as cordial as anyone could be. There was no artifice about him, no sense that he was special. He took time to chat both with me, and a young man who also was at the dinner.
Speaking and listening to him, you felt that you were in the presence of someone who was unique, not only for his remarkable career in the service of his Country, but for the man he was. He is a hero. I cannot describe the feeling of speaking with him, but I hope everyone has a chance to meet such a man. When you stand next to him, you stand next to History in all its splendor and modesty.
The book tells a story that happened only once, and cannot happen the same way again. If you were on the edge of your seat during the movie, the book is no different. If you feel lightheaded, it's because you have forgotten to breathe.
Despite my "handicap," I found this book to be highly readable and much more gripping than the movie. I polished it off in about three days. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much I would have understood if I hadn't seen the movie and known (from history) the basic plot. There was also some biographical information about Jim Lovell that I found extraneous to this particular account and some stuff left out that I would have found interesting (like training for the actual moon walk which wasn't even really touched on). An appendix at the end with suggested further reading would also have been a nice touch.
But the two authors do a remarkable job of taking what was basically a technological catastrophe and putting a very real and very human face on it. This is a book I am sure I will read again.