daniel prazer

The first two-thirds of this book are riveting, and there are some GREAT scenes on the moon. But walking on the moon and returning safely to home was the easy part. Buzz’s real struggle started when he got back—where do you go once you’ve walked on another celestial body?

For Buzz, it was the bottle— combined with crushing depression and his mother and grandfather committing suicide—that easily could have led him to taking his own life. It did for my father.

But Buzz took the hard road. Especially in the ’70s, seeking treatment for mental illness killed careers, more so in the military/NASA than any other industry, where astronauts were supposed to be supermen. It’s a page-turner, sad and light-hearted at once. But once Buzz the character dried out, so did the narrative.

The last third of Magnificent Desolation turned into a 100-page pitch for Buzz’s entrepreneurial endeavors. I slammed through it, but wish it had ended earlier. Still, a damn worthy read for anybody who’s had close contact with depression or alcoholism—and anymore, that’s everybody.

Some footprints last for thousands of years. Some only a few minutes.