Review of The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space (Hardcover)

Selected with the third group of American astronauts in 1963, Eugene Cernan "walked" in space as the pilot of Gemini 9, went around the Moon on Apollo 10, then returned there as the Commander of Apollo 17, the last lunar landing mission. A successful and interesting career even for astronaut standards. His autobiography, "The Last Man on the Moon", offers a personal account of those glory days of space exploration.

Throughout the book, Cernan portrays himself as a competitive workaholic, and it shows: there are a few introductory chapters on Gene's childhood and career as a naval aviator, and a brief afterthought on life after NASA, but the bulk of "Last Man" is about the space program, the space program, and the space program. Training and mission planning, the mechanics of crew selection, descriptions of his colleagues and anecdotes about their extracurricular activities, it's all there. The flights themselves are recounted in vivid detail, including a nauseatingly dangerous EVA on Gemini 9 and geology trips through the lunar valley of Taurus-Littrow. Overall, as Cernan later reflects, it feels "as if I was getting off one fast-moving express train only to immediately board another", and describes well the hectic and busy pace of the Moon race.

Underlying it all, and well in evidence, is the aggressive "right stuff" attitude usually found with this elite of pilots. It's easy to mistake Gene's self-confidence for arrogance, but he also displays plenty of humour and self-ironic jabs. Cernan was one of the more personable and gregarious astronauts, who clearly enjoyed the social perks that came with the job, and it's this mixture of cocky determination and laid-back charm that make his autobiography a gripping read. Indeed, "Last Man" is a page-turner in the real sense of the word. Particularly enlightening is the episode that saw Geno decline a LM pilot seat on Apollo 16, a gamble that paid off and in the end brought him command of his own mission. So is his relationship with geologist-astronaut Jack Schmitt, whom Cernan only grudgingly accepted on his crew. After some initial macho reservations against the "pebble-pusher", he learned to respect Schmitt as a tireless worker and supremely gifted individual who helped make Apollo 17 the most well rounded team of all. In between, with the lunar module on Apollo 10 spinning out of control for a moment, or a helicopter crash in training, there are enough close calls for several lifetimes.

The human qualities of the book show when Gene talks about his wife, Barbara, and the ordeals she had to go through, with an often absent husband in a dangerous job, while always displaying the brave "Mrs. Astronaut" to the public world. Ultimately, this ordeal led to the disintegration of Cernan's first marriage, and he speaks with a heightened sense of value about his family of today and his grandchildren. Such a sense of deep appreciation and philosophical reflection also shines through when Gene recounts his awe as one of only twelve humans to ever set foot on the Moon, "looking up at the cobalt Earth immersed in infinite blackness", and how the unique experience might have changed him. These are moments that he clearly treasures deeply, that left him with a restless yearning forever after. Cernan seems sad, not selfish, thinking that the accomplishments of the ten years of Apollo would probably take twice as long today, in a much more cautious and conservative age of spacefaring. And he expresses a sense of guilt at feeling unable to truly share what he saw in space with the rest of the world.

Geno needn't have worried there, for "The Last Man on the Moon" is a fabulous book. Well-written and informative, it leaves little to be desired. Perhaps, given the awe-inspiring nature of the subject, some chapters fly by just a tad too quickly, and one could have wished for a little more detail here, or a little deeper thought there. Overall, though, there are few better astronaut biographies. The page-turner qualities, Cernan's unique perspective (here is one of the three guys who went to the Moon twice!) and a subtle, but strong sense of philosophical reflection make for a very worthwhile read, not only for space enthusiasts.



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