Book Review: The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs by Mark O’Connell

Reviewed by B.J. Hollars

The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs
Nonfiction by Mark O’Connell
Dey Street Books, June 2017
$17.99; 416 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-0062484178

Though FBI Agent Fox Mulder of X-Files fame is most credited for claiming “the truth is out there,” here in the world beyond the TV screens, credit for such a sentiment belongs to UFO researcher and astrophysicist Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Hynek, whose many contributions to science extend well beyond the scope of UFOs, has, according to biographer Mark O’Connell, been unfairly relegated to the fringe, lumped alongside swaths of pseudo-scientists whose UFO claims lacked scientific backing. Upon wading through Hynek’s files in the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), O’Connell made it his mission to clarify the many misperceptions pertaining to the pioneering researcher. “This book,” writes O’Connell, “is an attempt to rectify Dr. Hynek’s story, to find the heroism, humor, and humanity in a man whose name has been relegated to a basement full of file cabinets when it should rightly be written in the stars.”

O’Connell’s writing style and extensive research confirm he’s up for the task, and by book’s end, readers are treated to a complex retelling not only of a single man, but of the larger UFO phenomenon. From an alleged UFO crash in Aurora, Texas in 1897, through the 1950-70s golden era of sightings, O’Connell provides a sweeping look at all things UFO, skillfully weaving Hynek’s investigative role throughout the various touched-upon cases. Yet an even greater accomplishment is O’Connell’s ability to steer clear of the “Do they or don’t they exist?” debate.  In doing so, O’Connell focuses more on the terrestrial, human story rather than veering toward the speculative, extraterrestrial tale.

Running concurrent to Hynek’s UFO investigations is the equally absorbing saga related to his continual struggle to maintain credibility within two oft-conflicting populations: scientists and the general public. While the public lambasted Hynek for his “swamp gas” theory pertaining to a Hillsdale, Michigan sighting, scientists such as Carl Sagan ridiculed him for the general lack of physical proof surrounding the many alleged sightings. At times, serving as a UFO researcher surely seemed a thankless job, though as interest in UFOs grew, so, too, did an interest in Hynek. By the 1980s—in the aftermath of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind—Hynek’s star had at last begun to rise. Yet he never “cashed in on his status as a UFO guru,” writes O’Connell.  “[E]xploiting his celebrity for monetary gain was not in his DNA.”

In the end, readers are left with a book that smartly refuses to simplify anything.  The mystery of UFOs persists, as does the mystery of J. Allen Hynek.  Yet thanks to Mark O’Connell, the latter is now a bit less mysterious.  The truth was out there, after all, and O’Connell helped us find most of it.

B.J. Hollars is the author of several books, most recently Flock Together: A Love Affair With Extinct Birds and From the Mouths of Dogs: What Our Pets Teach Us About Life, Death, and Being Human, as well as a collection of essays, This Is Only A Test. Hollars serves as a mentor for Creative Nonfiction, a contributing blogger for Brain,Child  and the founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild. An associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he lives a simple existence with his wife, their children, and their dog. For his writing, visit www.bjhollars.com; for his podcasts, visit www.snippetspodcast.com.