Book Review: The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis

The Man Who Fell to Earth
by Walter Tevis (Tevis) and
The Man Who Fell to Earth (graphic novel)
by Dan Watters and Dev Pramanik, adapted from the 1976 film version of The Man Who Fell to Earth by Nicolas Roeg, which was adapted from the Tevis novel (741.5 Tev)

If you ask most people nowadays if they’ve heard of The Man Who Fell to Earth, they’d probably mention having seen David Bowie (in his first major acting role) in the 1976 film by director Nicholas Roeg of that title. But is was actually a classic scifi novel before that film adapted the story (with some changes) for the big screen.

 

Thomas Jerome Newton may look human, but he’s not. He’s a visitor from a distant planet — an emissary from his own dying people, sent to Earth to manipulate both events and technological developments in order to surreptitiously build a spacecraft that can be used to return to his dying planet and ferry the rest of his people to our world. But he’s supposed to do it without attracting dangerous attention to himself. He is only partially successful.

 

This is a quiet, thoughtful science fiction novel that fits more into the “social science fiction” category. It is “scifi as written by a mainstream author”. Newton is a highly sympathetic character, separated from all he knows and values and surrounded by those he considers to be only rudimentally intelligent. It is a profile of loneliness and isolation and self-reflection, as Newton eventually grows to question the value of his own underlying mission.

 

In addition to the famed 1976 film, this story was adapted into the unsold pilot for a 1986 TV series (available on YouTube in its entirety), and a 2022 10-part Showtime series, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, was an official “sequel” to the David Bowie movie, with Bill Nighy taking over the Bowie role as Newton.

 

The 1963 novel is definitely a thing of its time, with certain glimpses of futuristic technology now looking absurdly quaint. But it is still well-written and I believe it justifies its place in the series of “SF Masterworks” of the 20th century. If you like it — check out Walter Tevis’ other novels, including Mockingbird, The Queen’s Gambit (turned into a 7-episode limited series on Netflix in 2020), The Hustler and The Color of Money (both adapted into classic feature films starring Paul Newman), among others.

 

If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Man Who Fell to Earth (graphic novel adaptation of the 1974 film by Nicolas Roeg starring David Bowie) by Dan Watters and Dev Pramanik. The film (and thus this graphic novel adaptation of the film) differs in several key facets from the original novel, notably in the presence of sex scenes and slightly different end fates for some of the characters. Having just read the novel, I was amused at the changes that are clearly evident in the graphic novel, but even then, it still gets across its messages about isolation, loneliness, addiction and corrupt power. And the artist does a good job of capturing the appearances of cast members David Bowie, Rip Torn, Bucky Henry, Candy Clark and Bernie Casey. I give both versions a 7 on our 1-10 rating scale.

 

( Wikipedia page for Walter Tevis, with links to info about all versions of The Man Who Fell to Earth )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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