The Race

Thirty years after the U.S. reached the Moon, taking a space race lead from which it would never look back, Schefter comes along to do the looking back. The author, who covered the space race for Time-Life and the Houston Chronicle, transmits colorfully and authoritatively the subtle infighting among the astronauts, the complex nature of lesser-known people like manned-flight champion Bob Gilruth, and the American leaders struggling with military, scientific and public relations concerns. Readers are transported inside the satellite where Enos the monkey becomes frustrated after an electrical malfunction, and taken to a cocktail party where the virtues of a large command center are hashed out. Schefter also gives ample scrutiny to various Russians, documenting the courage of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, the braggadocio of Soviet powerhouse Khrushchev and the leadership of Sergei Korolev, father of the Soviet space program. Schefter consistently waxes patriotic and at times veers into the arcane (""tumble runs rotated the pod every two seconds, throwing the astronaut inside from positive to negative g's with each rotation""), but he tells an engrossing tale filled with fascinating bits of trivia--he describes how Alan Shepard and Bill Dana pulled a practical joke on Wally Schirra by submerging his pleasure boat. Most importantly, however, Schefter deploys an expert grasp of narrative to escalate the excitement even as he informs. His book is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to relive the historic period of the space race--or for those learning about it for the first time. (June)