Our book choice for April 2012 is The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. Gentle, Christ-like alien, Thomas Jerome Newton falls to earth and undertakes a desperate plan to rescue the 300 remaining inhabitants of his war ravaged, resource depleted, dying home planet, Anthea.
The tale begins with his landing in a barren Kentucky coalfield, and traces his meteoric rise to the top of the business world, accomplished with advanced Anthean technology and superior Anthean intellect.
The plan works so well, that in a few short years he has amassed enough wealth to construct the ferry ship that will perform a rescue mission to Anthea. But as the project nears completion, after five years of isolation and psychological strain from living amongst earthlings, a gin-soaked, world-weary Newton begins to doubt the plan’s wisdom.
Discussion Questions
- Is it just a cult Sci Fi book or do you think the book stands up well as a novel outside of the genre?
- What do you think is the role of alcohol for each character?
- Does Newtons relationship with alcohol humanise him?
- What do you think is the purpose of some of the themes introduced including comparisons of Newton to Christ, Rumplestiltskin and Icarus?
- How dated are the messages and values of the book?
- Why does Newton ultimately fail? Does he give up?
- Despite classifying himself as male do you think his character is masculine, feminine or androgenous?
- Is it basically a human or an alien story?
- Would you recommend this book?
Individual Comments & Ratings
Miranda: The most interesting aspects of this book, in my mind, are some of the themes woven through it, in particular the comparisons of Newton to Christ, Rumplestiltskin and Icarus. Although there is an exploration of each one, none of them are really pushed as an “answer” to Newtons character or his motivations and their purpose seems only to be to further illustrate his confusion. I was particularly taken by the comparisons to the story of Rumplestiltskin during which Bryce characterises Newton as the little dwarf promising to save the princess but ultimately demanding as his price the gift of her first child. We discussed this as being a reference to the fact that the only way to gain power over Rumplestitlskin was to name him, which is strong parallel to Bryce’s desperate desire to be able to “name” Newton as an Alien. Once this has been done, however, even the CIA have to conceed that, once they have established beyond any doubt that he is from another planet, they can do very little with that information.
Miranda Rating 
DKB Rating 
