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Literature
has a long history of borrowing themes from religion and mythology,
but it takes a brave and insightful author to examine current
myths and convert those themes into literature. Robert Kelly
uses alien abduction to examine ideas about faith, humanism,
and the nature of reality in The Book from the Sky.
Despite
the plot—boy gets abducted by benevolent aliens and becomes
a cult leader—it would be misleading to call this a science
fiction book. The Book From The Sky clearly has its
roots firmly in the terra firma known as meta-fiction and
post-modernism as it deftly navigates slippery territory like
identity, the blurring of the lines between reality and faith,
and what it means to read fiction and non-fiction. Kelly is
a fantastic writer, and he easily draws readers into this
strange and philosophical book. His language is so lush and
evocative, it's easy to overlook the oddness of this book's
structure and just follow along.
As a
child, Billy is taken aboard a space ship by what seem to
be slightly sinister aliens. He quickly learns that he can
communicate with them psychically, and they explain to him
their purpose—they are surveying earth and its occupants
to see how different beings communicate. It turns out Billy
has a particular affinity for learning, and so he's kept with
the aliens and taught a higher purpose. In order to make Billy's
disappearance less suspicious, the aliens remove Billy's organs
and make a new Billy to send back to earth. Years later, the
original Billy is dropped back on earth where he remakes himself
as Brother William. Through his spiritual writings, he begins
to amass a following.
Excerpts
from Brother William's book, A Book from the Sky, are
spread throughout the story, serving as little pearls of philosophy,
always beginning with "Darling"—as in "Darling, you are
a restless door, a wandering portal." His way of speaking
is so distinctive that readers may find that occasionally
Brother William's voice appears in their heads, which could
be quite surreal, especially upon finding out that Brother
William's voice pops into the heads of several characters
in the book, followers and non-followers alike. Brother William
doesn't dispense advice per se. Most of his communications
are much more metaphysical than that. One is "Darling, there
is no lifeless matter. There is only alive and not alive anymore."
Billy
is truly divided. The other boy is returned to earth where
he lives Billy's life as if he wasn't a charismatic philosopher.
He marries his childhood sweetheart and has a family. William
is aware of this other person, but the other boy, now a man,
is only vaguely aware that sometimes he hears voices in his
head. Early on in the narrative, Kelly plants the idea in
reader's heads that the abduction may not be real—no
one else recalls seeing the spaceship, and he was only missing
for 30 minutes. Many of these details are touchstones in modern
UFO literature, so belief in Billy may rely on a reader's
own faith. In that way, it echoes a very human tendency to
question or not question what he is being told, depending
on the source. Is the narrative reliable or unreliable?
Part
of what makes The Book from the Sky so alluring is
Kelly's ability with words. With more than 50 books of poetry
and prose to his name, Kelly has honed his writing to a precise
edge. Sentences are rhythmic, words are repeated for effect,
but his meticulousness never seems mannered or overly stylized,
as in this passage when the aliens encounter Billy.
Their tools, though that name is hardly fair for the elegant
sinuous exiguous wands and probes and lancets they used
so deftly, their tools were all back at the metarsic ship,
and the boy was here, heavy in three-space, and they needed
to know what beings like them needed to know.
This need to know: is that the root of things? Or is it
the root of hell?
Kelly's
book is not an easy read. It changes time, point-of-view,
and chapters span the gamut narrative to secondary sources,
all interspersed with Brother William's philosophy. But Kelly's
skill with language will keep readers ensnared in this complex,
rewarding book.
(January,
2009)
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