Mr. Spaceman (review)

Abstract

commitments or treats them so lightly that they may as well not exist. No idea or institution is sacred. Billman's satire targets, among other things, public schools, the Church of Latter Day Saints, local law enforcement, the Forest Service, and especially marriage . Billman seems to depend on the flaws of these institutions to make the irresponsible and often immoral behavior of his characters appear less harmful, even redemptive. It works up to a point; but has he gone beyond that point? In part, ifs a matter of taste. If you like satire, you'll probably enjoy these stories. Full of high energy, quirky characters and plenty of local color, this is fiction that sticks with you from a promising new writer. (JL) Mr. Spaceman by Robert Olen Butler Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000, 224 pp., $24 Robert Olen Butler's newest novel, Mr. Spaceman, is a little book that tackles big mysteries—among them the nature of human language and the significance of dreams. This delightful mythical tale explores humanity from a perspective detached , literally, by light years. Based on a short story from Butler's previous coUection, Tabloid Dreams, the novel begins on December 30, 2000, when the extraterrestrial narrator, Desi, abducts a busload of Earth's "primary species." Throughout the novel Desi interviews a diverse cross-section of the American population before revealing himself to the world at the turn of the new millennium. Mr. Spaceman is the product of a skilled literary ventriloquist. Desi, who has learned about the human race through intercepted radio waves and a mere handful of interviews with humans, narrates the novel in an objective tone laced with the ad slogans and clichés he's picked up from the broadcast media. Commenting on the American attitude toward homosexuality, he says, "The mores are different on my home planet. Even there, however, I, Desi the Spaceman, am clearly a Manly Man, Fresh as an Irish Spring with a Lot to Like—Filter, Flavor, and a Flip-top Box. . . ." Desi also possesses the ability to assume the voice of his subject, so that person's words become his own. His interview sessions provide colorful and poignant breaks from a narrative voice that would otherwise become droning and annoying. Mr. Spaceman becomes almost unbearably suspenseful as Desi's mission deadline approaches. The risks inherent in revealing himself to all of humankind become increasingly clear to him, and his human subjects warn him of the "danger of crucifixion for an unarmed spaceman appearing in a flying saucer and scaring the hell out of a big, drunken crowd." The only disappointment in the story is the rather anticlimactic ending. Despite sometimes obscure religious symbolism in the latter half of the novel, Mr. Spaceman is a remarkable fable in the tradition of well known novelists Italo Calvino and Gabriel Garcia Marquez—one of those rare stories that is a reminder of all the magic inherent in us mere humans. (SF) The Missouri Review · 181 ...