Phases of Gravity

This slender, largely understated and unpretencious novel shows Simmons at his best; it's not bloated, doesn't have irrelevant lit. crit. essays stuffed into it and quietly grips despite mostly pretty low stakes.

You go to the moon; you walk on the moon; you come back. Now what? Richard Baedecker did it as part of the Apollo programme. Years later he's drifting, divorced, estranged from his son, unable to understand the personal significance of what only 12 people have ever done. Enter the Manic Pixie Dream Girl - except she does defy the cinematic trope in a couple of significant ways.

It took me a long time to finish this book, not because it isn't good, but because it's not what I expected—it isn't science fiction, despite what the label says. It is, rather, the contemplative and somewhat melancholy story of a fictional former Apollo astronaut, attempting to find his place in the post-Apollo world of the 1980s. Richard Baedecker has left his unsatisfying corporate job, and now seems adrift, traveling from India to Oregon, meeting with old colleagues, friends, and family. Gradually, and not without some grief, he puts together the pieces of a new life.

This is the short, fictional story about one of the last Apollo astronauts to walk on the moon and how it affected the rest of his life.

Now middle-aged, Richard Baedecker has to confront the consequences of his dedication - his wife left him, he no longer knows his son and his career is a sham. He has to learn to reconnect to life on this planet before it is too late. A very engaging and well written story.

Moving novel about a former astronaut who tries to reconnect with his son and find his place after what he feels was an early peak in life. Not really science fiction or fantasy, but more a humanitarian and metaphysical novel about life.

In the 1950s or early 1960s, this would have been science fiction. Now, it's "merely" a rather moving novel about an astronaut coming to terms with his changing life after the Apollo programme was cancelled. I was captivated.

About men and boys and love. Fleetingly, in the background: aviation and space.

NIL