On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, both the BBC and The Telegraph turned their gaze to Norman Mailer’s Of a Fire on the Moon—and found it as strange, singular, and spellbinding as ever. In the BBC piece, Nicholas Barber calls Mailer’s account “the greatest Apollo 11 story ever told,” not because it’s the most comprehensive, but because it’s the most human and self-aware. Mailer is there not just as a journalist but as a character—skeptical, awestruck, philosophically shaken—offering an existential read on the space race that still feels radical.
Over at The Telegraph, Jake Kerridge calls Of a Fire on the Moon “a thrilling mash-up of reportage and metaphysical inquiry,” noting how Mailer, writing under the persona “Aquarius,” managed to turn NASA’s vast, antiseptic machinery into a stage for cosmic drama. While most reporters documented the nuts and bolts, Mailer was asking bigger questions—about technology, masculinity, myth, and the fate of the human soul.
Together, these tributes underscore what Mailer devotees already know: Of a Fire on the Moon is Mailer at his most expansive, tapping into both his journalistic instincts and novelistic ambition to craft something that’s not just about a moonshot—but a mind trip.