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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Tapestry of Science and Society, January 26, 2004
It was a timely coincidence I decided to read this book in 2004, twenty-two years after it was originally published. Ordinarily I am put off by 800 page books, especially historical fiction. However, this one was different. It grabbed and held me. Challenging, absorbing, dramatic, stimulating, and meaningful are a few of the adjectives that come to mind.Michener has dramatized the first advent of man into space in a marvelously cohesive and illuminating fashion. The characters he creates are not meant to be historical, but instead they represent the richness and variety of human nature that almost miraculously have to come together in order to achieve an important and demanding task. Alongside these brave men--and occasionally in front of them-- we find their unique wives and their families, sometimes with values agonizingly different from their parents. But the main task is to harness all of their energy to the pressing and onerous task of doing something nearly, but not quite, impossible -- lifting tons of metal far beyond the grasp of Earth's gravity and guiding it unerringly to bull'seye targets millions of miles away. Michener's story begins during World War II where American war heroes and German rocket scientists alternately share the narrative. Their diverse lives are seamlessly woven into a rich tapestry that eventually becomes the spectacular American space initiative. In exploring the scientific and engineering conquest of space the danger for an author is that it could become monotonously technical. Michener neatly avoids this danger by interspersing a running commentary on the revolution in social conditions that germinated and developed in American during this turbulent time. Not only is outer space explored, but also, the inner space of life in America. Michener examines the widely varied backgrounds, goals, and motivations of the astronauts, their wives, their families, and their political and social leaders. An amazing assortment of contemporary social issues are brought in: minority representation, fragmented but successful marriages, the politics of funding science, the devisiveness of the Vietnam war, homosexuality, and the effect of religious fundamentalism on science are but a few of the issues. All this is in addition to the thrilling resourcefulness of the highly select group of astronauts as they skillfully battle the elements of nature-- not always successfully. This book is a spectacular amalgamation of science and society. Like a masterful painting it captures many essential elements that could never be present at one time in a even the most carefully posed photograph. From these many strands Michener weaves a fascinating fabric of the most courageous scientific and engineering accomplishment of man-- the conquest of outer space.
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by Charles Shaw
by James A. Michener
by James A. Michener
by James A. Michener
by James A. Michener
