Ahoy there mateys! This book won the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel.  Enoch Wallace survived the U.S. Civil War and is alive 124 years later but looks 30.  He runs a way station for traveling aliens.  That part is so cool and I loved the unfolding of the how and why.  I loved Clifford's friendship with the alien Ulysses.  I did not like the exploration of human loneliness through Mary et. al. and didn't like the mute neighbor who is a special snowflake or her hillbilly relations.  The exploring of what it means to be human felt heavy-handed and kinda silly.  But once the big conflict starts, the book falls apart.  The discussions of war and the solutions were nonsensical.  I hated the ending.  It is too short to do the actual concept justice. Arrrr!