The Quintessential Critic of the 20th Century

I remember when I read this novel for the first time 30 years ago.  In some ways I was a young man mystified and engrossed by the apparent adaptation of the free love movement.  Having read it for a third time recently, I am again reminded why Heinlein is compared to Mark twain, not just as a futurist, but as a social critic!

Look at the character of Jubal in this story.  The Charlatan, the Wise man, The convert and ultimately Michael Valentine Smith's High Priest in no need of being taught!  Jubal encapsulates Heinlein's criticism of the differences between organized political religion and the truly human pursuits of spirituality!  In jubal we have the ( and dare I say it) the mirror to our modern jaded view od religion and spirituality, who none-the-less finds his spiritual fullfillment innately without Michael's teachings!

Again, as he has done throughout his career, Robert Heinlein uses humor and contrast to illumine the human condition in all its absurdity!  He pokes and prods us until we are seeing something both old and new and he shocks us out of our complacency so we can see it.  He coaches the classical metaphors of our western religious mythos and then puts a new twist on it.  The great trick hoever, is that we do not realise he has done it, because he has entertained us, rather than pedantically placing the words in a character's mouth!


I would recommend this novel to the initiate or veteran reader alike, to the new to SF genre or the old schloggers of space time.