Pros: Subtle intelligence. Sensitive insight. Period feel.
Cons: Short. Somewhat inclined to put politics over plot on a few pages .
The Bottom Line: Read this book to enjoy a witty and touching tale of one mans journey from absurdity to meaning, by way of some extremely unusual adventure!
snpmurray's Full Review: Robert A. Heinlein - Double Star
Hugo Award winner for 1957, Double star is a fascinating tale.
Lorenzo Smythe (or Lawrence Smith more formerly) is an out of work actor, down on his luck, drinking himself slowly into oblivion in back-street bars. With an over-inflated sense of his own importance, and with a penchant for reveling in the eccentricities of personality he believes he may permit himself as a perk of his profession, Lorenzo is a charismatic nobody.
However, he is wanted by one group, and wanted badly. They need him to play a role which is both dangerous, difficult, and astonishing. Lorenzo Smythe must impersonate the great Joseph Bonaforte, charismatic and visionary politician, a man trying unite the people of earth with the alien inhabitants of Mars. Bonaforte has been kidnapped, and he must execute a critical ritual with the Martians, in person, or forfeit all for which he has worked. Only Smythe has the acting experience and physical resemblance necessary.
But Lorenzo hates Martians, can’t stand the sight or smell of them. He hates politics too. And he is no particular fan of physical danger. He has no intention of taking such a role, but his new comrades, upon locating him, are completely insistent, and they kidnap and blackmail Lorenzo into playing the role. Oddly, and to his own surprise, as soon as he begins the job, he begins to enjoy the challenge of it.
On his flight from Earth to Mars, Lorenzo is schooled in all aspects of Bonaforte’s life…..his use of language, his mode of speech, the root tenets of his philosophy, all are instilled in Smythe. An apt pupil, and a stunning mimic, he quickly adopts the persona of the great man. By the time he arrives at the red planet, persons of daily acquaintance with Bonaforte are fooled by his impersonation. Smythe surpasses even his own expectations in his first encounters with others. Thrusting himself deeply into the mindset of the great, he discovers, can raise the quality of ones own thinking, and soon he is able to not only impersonate, but also improvise. Smythe ad-libs philosophy and charisma in the exact style of the kidnapped politician.
You might have guessed already (its not exactly difficult to predict), Lorenzo finds that the period of his engagement in this role keeps getting longer and longer. Bonaforte is released by his captors, but even then he is so mentally debilitated that Smythe must either stay in character, and in-situ, or all will have been for nothing. Perched exactly halfway now between loathing and love for what he is involved in, Lorenzo presses on, becoming more and more exposed to the public, becoming ever more high-minded himself, and slowly, but surely, he begins to forget what it was ever like to be Lorenzo Smythe at all. He is now as dedicated to the cause as Bonaforte’s aides and loved ones, albeit in perhaps a more intimate manner.
Will Lorenzo be discovered? Can the relationship of two planets be managed by a down and out actor? Will he ever be freed from his uninvited tour de force? All this and more awaits you, in Double Star.
And, as we say, so much for the plot. Top marks, great idea.
…And well executed! This wonderful little book is extremely well written. When I began reading, I confess that I thought that it sounded all a bit too straightforward. The near-transparent plot, the hugely stereotyped space aliens versus spacemen with huge muscles thing……I began to suspect this book was a work intended as a juvenile.
But no! How wrong I was!
My first suspicion that I had it all wrong was some few short pages into the book. Lorenzo (the story is narrated in the first person by him) states that he was so down on his luck that he was ready to play the balcony in Romeo and Juliet. I had a double-take moment, then sat back and guffawed! How delightful, to believe one is reading a thin simple tale, only to discover that it has subtleties of wit, which can trick by, if one does not then present the commensurate attention! I returned to the beginning, and began reading again. From this point on, I think I relished nearly every page. Heinlein here has taken a simple tale, and matured it into a fascinating observation of one character…..his growth, inner life, and discovery of who he really is. What a job he does of this. The protagonist moves steadily through the book from a position of frank absurdity, to a deep inner calm, and self control. Smythe is seen, in the act of impersonating greatness, to acquire it himself. Forced, on a daily, even hourly basis to ask himself “what would the great do in this situation?” Smythe constantly questions his own behavior, motive, and goals until he reaches a point where his personality has permanently altered. I once read on a Cheerios box, and have never forgotten…..once your consciousness has been raised, it cannot be lowered.
Each of the supporting characters complements the lead in this piece. Bonaforte has a close group of aides, and each of this small troupe is well drawn. Typical of Heinlein, if not trademark, there is Dak Broadbent, brave and colossally muscled pragmatic space-guy…but also a PhD in physics, and is an accomplished diplomat and politician in his own right (Heinlein’s spacemen always have brain and brawn and talent. I suspect they all originate at Lake Wobegon). Then there is Penny, Bonaforte’s secretary (naturally, again, this is Heinlein. Woman are secretaries. They wear skirts. They are scared of mice. You get the picture. Sigh) Penny actually is unusually strong a female character for Heinlein…I didn’t find one truly denigrating comment regarding the female of the species in this book, something his books are often riddled with. She is secretly in Love with Bonaforte. Here with these two characters, and a third, the personal analyst of Bonaforte, Lorenzo can be seen to explore Bonaforte in terms of emotion, intellect, and spirit. Each aspect of the man is explored, and the counterpart components in the psyche of Lorenzo are tested at the same time. Lorenzo is on a journey of overcoming himself. Handsomely, Heinlein presents this inner journey without resorting to any psycho-babble, only having his protagonist live through some of the trails of life. I valued and admired this approach.
Heinlein’s Mars is a peculiar place, born really of the time when this novel was written, the nineteen fifties. Like Clarke in the same era, science fiction writers had not yet felt the need to push the boundaries of intelligent alien civilization beyond the confines of our own celestial closest neighbor. Until any probes went to Mars, it was clearly fair game to fill it with cities, cars, roads, etc, and many authors seemed fully expectant that we would find new company there. Heinlein’s Martians are nicely outlined…..by this I actually mean that there is little in the way of physical description, beyond their rough shape and
Pseudopodal limbs. This allows the reader to give full reign to the imagination in filling in the details. Mine had stripes for example. I tend to like stripy aliens. Always a let-down when authors give me too much detail and limit my mental painting.
I am not going to tell you that the plot of this book is going to give you any revelatory surprises, because it isn’t. It really didn’t come to matter, that is certainly not the reason that you should spend the couple of short hours required to read it. What you will get for your time and effort is wit, intelligence, surprising sensitivity, all wrapped up in a package of plot and theme so cheesy that the accomplishment will amaze you!
Yep, another one to read for sure. I’ve said it before, but Heinlein really is a fine fine writer. I hope might read him on this recommendation. It is devoid of bad language, violence and sexual content. Just good old fashioned adventure.
One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was -- as usual -- in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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