Moondust by Andrew Smith

[Freewheeling Andy]

So, just finished this and have been completely engrossed by it.

 

Directly, it's a British journalists quest to meet and catch up with the remaining nine men who've walked on the moon; but it's much more than just that.

 

It definitely comes from the tradition (and often references) Tom Wolfe's magnificent "The Right Stuff". And, unsurprisingly, doesn't quite match up, because Wolfe's book is one of my very favourite ever.

 

But, unlike Wolfe, it doesn't really end up being all about the glory. Instead it's a much more poignant book, about how the Space Race and the Apollo programmes were doomed ventures, dead-ends, and how - as a result - we're left with an ever decreasing group of men who've ever left near-earth orbit, and who've ever walked on the moon. And how nobody has the vaguest of plans to ever return. That, not too long in the future, there'll be nobody left who's been up there.

 

All of the men who were there are fascinating in their own ways, and Smith is open to them. There's none of the bitterness you sometimes here. And they fill the bulk of the book; but the interesting thing is how Smith parallels Apollo with politics and with pop/hippy culture, and in particular how the naive optimism of the hippy-culture mirrors Apollo, although superficially there were so different.

 

A fascinating book. Flawed - Smith does that annoying-journalist thing of "I had this great insight that the person I'm interviewing had never heard before", which bugs me. And, clearly not as wonderful as Wolfe's book. But, if you're anything bordering on a space-geek, then this is pretty much essential reading.