Book summary

This 1961 novel, considered to be one of Heinlein's definitive works, was the first science fiction book ever to make the bestseller lists. Valentine Michael Smith, a human child raised on Mars, returns to Earth with psychic powers and a strongly alien outlook. After some difficulties in understanding and acclimating to society, he teaches others an adaptation of Martian philosophy--including group marriage as a way of life and cannibalism as the highest form of respect for the deceased--and as a result, his followers begin to share his extraordinary mental abilities. Having founded a church in order to disseminate his teachings more freely, Mike Smith becomes its Messiah-figure, with all of the divine and dangerous consequences that entails. Heinlein was strongly right-wing himself, and the character of the libertarian Dr. Jubal Harshaw can be said to be his mouthpiece. However, this book most powerfully appealed to hippies, who embraced its idea of free love and Michael Smith's mantra of "Thou art God." Somewhat more unfortunately, Charles Manson claimed the book as one of his inspirations. Today, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND is still greatly beloved by both free spirits and hardcore science fiction fans--and is notable for having brought the word "grok" (meaning to know something at its deepest level) into vernacular English.