- Paperback: 223 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (2 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099283530
- ISBN-13: 978-0099283539
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,040,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Mr. Spaceman
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
At the opening of Robert Olen Butler's metaphysical comedy Mr Spaceman, the date is December 30, 2000. Desi is a spaceman who has a way with words. Listening to them, that is. He has been hovering over Earth for years, occasionally beaming up earthlings and telepathically auditing their personal histories. Recently, Desi has beamed up a busload of gamblers bound for a Louisiana casino. His wife, Edna Bradshaw--beamed up earlier from Bovary, Alabama--is making sausage balls, a dish she believes will comfort the astonished visitors. Together, Desi and Edna put everyone so at ease that the abductees quickly become disciples.
Butler's narrator is a happy comic creation, a deadpan alien in love with his wife and her fine set of knockers:
There are three things about this planet which are too wonderful for me. Make that four things. The way of dreams in the mind; the way of tears in the eyes; the way of words in the mouth; and the way of my wife Edna Bradshaw when she acts like a cat and lovenibbles me into her arms.In a novel that eludes classification, Butler propels Desi's linguistic struggles, busload of disciples and attempts to plumb the mystery of human yearning to a tight climax as he plans his first public appearance on Earth, which his new followers believe is a second coming. Mr. Spaceman is by turns a fond satire of science fiction, an ode to the South, and an exploration of marital dynamics that's as besotted with detail as any Anne Tyler novel--though the perspective does tilt a little off-centre. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
Product Description
"Mr Spaceman" confronts the face of the human condition through the eyes of Desi, an extraterrestrial who has kept a quiet vigil over the planet for decades, seeking a better understanding of its fascinating and frustrating primary species.
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First Sentence
I am. The word on the face of the bus is LUCK. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
I am. The word on the face of the bus is LUCK. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
the old chesnut of how a spaceman would view earth, some nice lines with the hero using pop song titles and advertising sayings, but considering it is only 223 pages long, it took a long time to read.
a disappointing book from an author with a very good reputation, not one of his better ones
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
23 reviews
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Eloquently written science fiction.
6 Jan 2000
Format: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
No Ordinary Spaceman
20 Sep 2000
Format: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
Tons of science fiction heart
18 Nov 2001
Format: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.
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