Almost everyone knows that Buzz Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon, but few people are aware of his long descent which followed. Less than a decade after literally propelling himself to an unfathomable pinnacle of human achievement, Aldrin was a depressed alcoholic who was struggling to earn a living as a car salesman. His riveting memoir charts his phenomenal rise to glory, his disappointing fall from grace, his struggle to attain sobriety, and his return to new heights as a happy husband and spokesperson for the space program. For the first time, Aldrin provides startling details about the Apollo 11 landing which reveal how close the mission came to ending in disaster on several occasions. Most memorably, he also enunciates the "magnificent desolation" he felt in outer space, a shift in his perspective which became a factor in his post-landing depression, but also fueled his eventual recovery.