Mr. Spaceman [Import] [Paperback]

Robert Olen Butler (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (August 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099283530
• ISBN-13: 978-0099283539
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eloquently written science fiction., January 6, 2000

By 

Al Schildwachter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Spaceman (Hardcover)

Mr. Spaceman is an eloquently written novel about an alien perparing to make contact with Earth. The spaceman attemps to obtain a thorough understanding of humanity by sensing the "inner truths" of a variety of people. This entertaining book gives a wonderful perspective on humanity, our fears and desires, allowing both the spaceman and the reader to gleam a better understanding of humanity. This book should quickly be elevated to "literature" status, especially when so much science fiction is so poorly written.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Ordinary Spaceman, September 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mr. Spaceman (Hardcover)

Mr. Spaceman had its genesis in one of the funniest and most poignant stories in Butler's last collection, Tabloid Dreams. In "Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover," lonely Edna Bradshaw told of falling in love with Desi, an alien being, in the parking lot of an Alabama Wal-Mart. Now Butler has picked up Desi and Edna's story at a later point. Married and hovering above the earth at the end of the year 2000, they're entertaining an entire busload of Texans bound for a Louisiana casino. Desi has beamed both bus and passengers up to his spaceship so he can continue his research into the nature of human beings. This is to prepare him to reveal himself and his spaceship to earth media on New Year's Eve.

With down-home hospitality, Edna offers cheese straws and sausage balls to the abducted bus passengers who can't help noticing Desi's eight fingers on each hand, all ending in little sucker disks. But he's no ordinary spaceman; he's simple and wise by turns, lacing his conversation with earthly advertising slogans and song titles. "I'm a friendly guy," he says. "There Is a Kind of Hush All Over the World Tonight. I Would Like to Teach the World to Sing. I Would Like to Buy the World a Coke."

Eventually Desi learns the life stories of the individual passengers through his empathic powers. Though these often moving monologues from the heart compose a kind of cross-section of American humanity, many have the familiar ring of characters met too often in recent fiction. None is as engaging or original as Desi himself. His visit to an American supermarket, dressed in zoot suit and hat, is one of the most hilarious scenes in the book.

Butler's blend of humor and insight, along with his ability to examine the human condition, is on display here, as it was in Tabloid Dreams and Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Mr. Spaceman, though, is a tour de force, a flight of fancy which lands squarely in the center of the heart.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tons of science fiction heart, November 18, 2001

By 

William Fare (Cedar Rapids, IA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Spaceman (Hardcover)

Desi the Spaceman has quite a task before him. As he continues to hover over planet Earth with his wife Edna - he picked her up in the Walmart parking lot near her home in Alabama - he realizes that his mission is coming to its most dangerous step. He must reveal himself to Earth and face the possible defensive (and violent) response.

Before the "unveiling", which is to take place on New Year's Eve, Desi decides to hijack a bus of casino-bound gamblers from a dark highway. He's brought people to his ship before, but these will be the first who are allowed to retain the experience upon their release. The bus reveals a truly diverse bunch, everything from a punky, confused Christian to a gay bus driver named Hank.

Mr. Spaceman is a simple, affecting collection of the very things that Desi is trying to learn from each of the individuals. Their inner voices, emotions, fears, and - most importantly - their yearnings. While it sounds a lot like science fiction, it's really more of a gentle, New Age study of the human condition. Robert Olen Butler seems to have a great compassion (if not always the best understanding) for each of his characters as they reveal their stories to the spaceman. That sensitive tone carries through the novel without much plot development, but that seems about right. While there's nothing new here, it's an enjoyable read and I certainly look forward to other works by the author.