Walter Tevis
Paperback | Pages: 209 pages Rating: 4.04 | 6111 Users | 643 Reviews
Be Specific About Containing Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
| Title | : | The Man Who Fell to Earth |
| Author | : | Walter Tevis |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 209 pages |
| Published | : | September 28th 1999 by Del Rey (first published February 1963) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction. Classics |
Representaion Conducive To Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Man Who Fell to Earth is my second Walter Tevis novel and unfortunately I didn’t like it anywhere near as much as I did The Queen’s Gambit.Superficially it’s a sci-fi novel: the protagonist is Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from the planet Anthea (Venus?), who comes to Earth to make enough money to build a rocketship to send back home and bring his people over to water-rich Earth. Alright, fine, that’s the premise and, very loosely, the plot. What it is in actuality? About a sad and lonely alcoholic who happens to be an alien.
What frustrated me the most was how little happened. Newton gets rich patenting alien tech. Then he continues to amass wealth. And he continues to amass wealth. He meets a couple people along the way. And he continues to amass wealth. He starts drinking. And he continues to amass wealth. And he continues to amass wealth. And… zzz…
It’s not a long novel (just under 200 pages) but it felt way longer because there’s almost nothing here to engage the reader. Knowing what little I do about Tevis’ life, I get that it’s basically about his lifelong battle with alcoholism and how having been a sickly child kept him weak and away from school so he couldn’t make friends which must’ve felt lonely and depressing.
Loneliness and depression lead to substance abuse - as an explanation for addiction, that’s totally believable if hardly revelatory. Except overstating this without exploring any deeper isn’t just unsatisfying but it’s also immensely tedious to read.
I wonder if the phrase “feeling like an alien” as a way of describing having trouble relating to others/social isolation originated with this book. Tevis also takes a dim view of the US government but that feature’s par for the course when it comes to alien stories.
It’s well-written and parts of it are mildly interesting - when Newton is interrogated by Federal agents at the end - but The Man Who Fell to Earth was mostly repetitive and very, very boring!
Define Books Supposing The Man Who Fell to Earth
| Original Title: | The Man Who Fell to Earth |
| ISBN: | 0345431618 (ISBN13: 9780345431615) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Thomas Jerome Newton, Nathan Bryce |
Rating Containing Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
Ratings: 4.04 From 6111 Users | 643 ReviewsJudge Containing Books The Man Who Fell to Earth
Who would have thought that a book about an alien coming to Earth could be so sad?? I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Picked this one up somewhere in Edison Park, Chicago, my home in Park Ridge being right across Canfield/Ozanam from the city limits. Read it on the same day I, rarely satisfied under our household's strict food regimen, bought my first real food, a can of black olives.The Man Who Fell to Earth was one of the saddest books I'd ever read at the time. Its protagonist's good intentions towards us, the extremity under which his own species had found itself and his great loneliness were all very
3.5 to 4.0 stars. I really struggled between giving this 3 or 4 stars and settled closer to 4 for one primary reason: the ending of the story was deeply emotional and I believe will stay with me for some time. Apart from the excellent ending, the rest of the story was well-written, moved along at a good pace and kept me interested.
I had nearly forgotten why people start reading in the first place: the joy of an honest story. I'm so used to the writer as the essential protagonist, the writing as his conflict, and whether or not I want to throw away his book as his comedic or tragic end. But this just unfolds cleanly, without seeming consciously written at all. Never an "ohhh that was beautiful" and very rarely a distracting wince. I got deeply engaged without any self-discipline at all. It's lightening-quick and so
On the outside, The Man Who Fell to Earth is about Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien from the planet Anthea, who has come to Earth seeking salvation for the last of his people but it's really about being alone inside your own skin and struggling to feel connected to anyone or anything before you die.Walter Tevis takes a subject that has been overdone, ooh a spaceship and an alien EXCITING!, and makes his own unique brand of sociopolitical science fiction. The lyrical descriptions mesh well with the
It is not often that you find a great book. A book that makes you feel pride after you've read it. This was one of those books.Writen in 1963, the man who fell to earth is considered a sci-fi classic, although the book is far from being restricted to a specific genre because it tackles a lot of different subjects.The prose is fluid and it feels natural to read . Walter Travis is clearly a writer with huge story telling abilities which lead me, at times, to think that I was reading Stephen King
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