The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon
By: Todd Zwillich / Narrated By: Todd Zwillich, Angelo Di Loreto
Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
A bit of a fistfight, with lots o’ history and personalities thrown in
Much as I hate to admit it, cuz the other reviewer was mightily peeved, I read a review that likened The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon to winding up in the middle of a married couple’s highly personal fight. How uncomfortable it is. And yeah, as the audiobook progresses, one sees that one is INDEED in the midst of an argument for John C. Houbolt as THE person who brought the Apollo space program LOR, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, thus making the manned mission to the moon possible.
The man DEFinitely deserves his kudos. Kinda sorta like crazy, so I didn’t have toooo much trouble with the argument, but I guess the audiobook woulda been better without the bitterness that seeped into Houbolt’s life and psyche. We’re treated to quotes from letter after letter where he tries to claim a $100,000 “prize” for that contribution but was passed up due to personality conflicts and poison pen letters. This after so much deliciously interesting fodder on the history of just how the flight came into being and sooo much delicious history of what was going on during that time, whether it was Sputnik, civil rights, the Bay of Pigs, ANYthing on the Cold War. It sorta takes away/drives the narrative away from the miracle of space flight, how absolutely AWEsome the achievement was.
John Houbolt was the man who ran the numbers, did the hard calculations, had the tough fights, all in an effort for NASA to see that, given the abilities of the time, the limitations of weight, of fuel, LOR was the only way to go. And he was met with silence, with indifference, and sometimes with outright abuse. But he kept on running the numbers, did the “minority report”, kept on plugging away, even tho’ one can tell he was an incredibly sensitive man who was hurt by all things said, all things left unsaid. Tho’ there were many people who backed him, the audiobook makes the case that it was he, as a lone man bearing the brunt of the derision, who fought and prevailed.
And throughout the whole audiobook, there are FASCINATING interviews of scientists, of historians, all delivered with breathless ease by the narrator. I’m gonna go with Zwillich himself, as it sooounds like his voice from the video snippet on Audible even though Angelo Di Loreto is credited also (Google shows Di Loreto as a musician but ALSO a narrator of audiobooks, so I can’t say for sure. Another Google search shows he maaay’ve narrated quite a bit, but again: Unsure. My HUMBLEST apologies for not being in-the-know for ya!). I especially enjoyed the interviews with Houbolt’s wife, even though those interviews too could be a bit frustrating. Turns out? The man RARELY spoke of what was going on “at work” so she was left in the dark during a fairly MAJOR point of the country’s history. Later, she throws him a 95th space-themed birthday party and, though his face is somewhat marred by the impairments due to Parkinson’s, she senses by the light in his eyes that he was taken and very happy about the theme. DUDE! Tell your wife SOMEthing!!!
So there’s aaaaall the history that is so dear to me, newsreel audio, interviews, background music. BUT there’s also the descent into Houbolt’s own descent after the success of the mission. Even Wernher von Braun’s accolades and verrrry public thanks over making the mission possible were not enough to carry him through the later years. I can see his wishing for even more recognition, given his battles, but for ALL the recognition? Hmmm… I dunno. I have a feeling there were several scientists who woulda and, indeed, WERE of his same ilk at the same time. So his post-mission vitriol gets to be a tad uncomfortable for the listener who went into the audiobook for an exhilarating joyride.
The book ends with the truly enticing question: Would we be closer to deeper lunar exploration had not Kennedy incited NASA to get to the moon so soon? Would other, more meaningful, avenues been explored, been taken? While the answer is most assuredly yes (As this info is conveyed in the audiobook), one has to keep in mind the time in history (Also as conveyed): The Cold War was in full swing, the Soviet Union was making grand and sweeping strides, the US has already suffered humiliation from their progress. Besides, the US was in domestic turmoil at the time with the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam being a hot mess. Thus, even though I felt things might be better for us now, back then? Well, we did what we needed to do.
And though I have some reservations about how the audiobook progressed (Houbolt’s devolving into someone bitter and shooting off scathing, and sometimes whiny, letters), I must say that I enjoyed the whole ride. I was but a toddler at the time, but I reeeeally wish I could say that I saw it all and remember it all.
Alas, I cannot. But what I can say? I listened to this book. I listened, and it was pretty much awesome!
Also? The night before I wrote this review, I looked up into the night sky. And God bless us all: It was one of the nights the International Space Station was soaring, bright, swift, through the darkened sky…!
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