On the Beach by Nevil Shute Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of On the Beach
Book Review: "Not With a Bang"
Summary: 5 Stars
In _In Search of Wonder_ (1967), Damon Knight devotes a chapter to "amphibians"-- mainstream authors who write a science fiction novel and then go back to what they were doing before. Some examples of amphibious books are Aldous Huxley's _Brave New World_ (1932), Bernard Wolfe's _Limbo_ (1952), Gore Vidal's _Messiah_ (1954), Pat Frank's _Alas, Babylon_ (1959), Anthony Burgess's _A Clockwork Orange_ (1962), Pierre Boulle's _Planet of the Apes_ (1963), William Burroughs's _Nova Express_ (1964), John Barth's _Giles Goat-Boy_ (1966), and Marge Piercy's _Woman on the Edge of Time_ (1976). Many amphibious novels are in fact more literate and original than a lot of genre science fiction.
Is _On the Beach_ (1957) an amphibious novel? Knight argues-- and I concur-- that it is not. There are a few superficial resemblances to science fiction; but unlike the novels listed above, it is not really steeped in science fiction traditions. It is closer to such books as William Golding's _Lord of the Flies_ (1954), B.F. Skinner's _Walden Two_ (1948), Mordecai Roshwald's _Level Seven_ (1959), or Eugene Budrick and Harvey Wheeler's _Fail Safe_ (1962)-- novels that are eccentric but which were conceived and written as some kind of mainstream novel.
Is it a good novel? You might think that a novel showing the world ending "not with a bang/ But with a whimper" is not a very promising proposition. But Shute is a writer who knows how things work. He knows how submarines and sailboats and Ferraris work. He knows what the best tires are for wagons and why cars are sometimes pulled with horses. He knows how to read a Geiger counter. He knows how Navy bureaucracy operates and what hard decisions politicians sometimes make. He knows the routine of running a farm or tending a garden. He knows why suddenly socks must be darned and shirts must be mended. He knows what a postwar church service would be like. He knows what drinks not to mix together, and he knows the best wines to drink from the wine cellar. He knows how the trade winds circle, blowing radiation ever southward. He knows the symptoms of radiation sickness, measles, and cyanide poisoning.
He does not know any more than his characters how World War III began, but he-- like the characters-- knows how it _might_ have begun. How there was a Russian plan for a Siberian- Shanghai railroad, and how this plan, incredibly, might have led to a war where split second decisions were made-- a war in which nobody could risk refraining from using kilotons of nuclear weapons. (Shute had been an areonautical engineer who knew a lot about weapons. This section, in spite of its speculative nature, rings very true.)
He knows why people do certain things. He knows why some people try to escape into drink, others into the routine of work, and others into family affairs. He appreciates why some people do not want to watch movies except when they are drunk. He understands why some people still think of their dead family as alive, and why others might become morbidly obsessed with death.
Shute draws you into the world of these people who desperately want to continue to live normal lives-- but who know that their hopes are futile. But... would things really wind down as quietly as we see it portrayed in _On the Beach_? No rioting in the streets? No breakdown of civil order? Just a few decent people accepting their lot with stiff upper lips? I don't know. Shute writes so well that he makes you _believe_ that it could happen this way, but I Have My Doubts. In any event, _On the Beach_ is certainly a fine book that holds up very well, even after a period of almost 50 years.
Book Review: "Shute", that was kinda boring, guess classics aren't for me
Summary: 2 Stars
I guess I'm just not that much a fan of the classics. I read this book because my friend recommended it to me and raved about it's merits. So i took a break from the series I am reading to give "On the Beach" a try. What I found was what I saw as a lot of pointless nothing. Don't get me wrong, i understand the meaning of this story, the purpose it was written for, all the ironies, and why it is hailed as a classic. But the bottom line is...the book was darn boring and woefully predictable. Funny thing is, I was in a class at college and had the book out on my desk when the teacher saw it and said "Oh I love that book, have you read this part yet? blah blah blah...you'll love the ending..." She went on and on. So i figure the best was yet to come...little changed. Right up to the end i told myself, "I know a shocker is coming". The end was exactly how I predicted it to be, no surprise there at all. Not that this was meant to be a suspenseful book or anything, but since she spoke so highly of the ending i figured something odd or surprising would happen, much to my disappointment, it didn't.
This book was also too depressing for me. Can't say I enjoyed that much. I know that is why it was written, and I commend the author for achieving that task of instilling a sense of depression in it's readers, but next time someone requests a book of this sort to me I will do my research. I'm a personal fan of happiness. I'm also a fan of entertainment, something this book didn't do for me.
Like I say, I guess classics aren't for me. I will stick to science fiction and fantasy. This may not be true at all for you, but I know what I prefer, and it's not this book. Thank you for your time and always remember this piece of advice, "Dont listen to what people say in these reviews, find everything out for yourself!" funny I would say that at a time like this but there's no time like the present. Reading anything is better than no reading at all...
Book Review: "The past isn't dead. It's not even past."
Summary: 5 Stars
Faulkner nailed it. The plot of Shute's book is as timely as it was in the late 50's. Why? How?
Why should you spend under $5 for a used copy from Amazon?
What Shute wrote about is going to happen!
The 'nuk-ler' secret, to quote the only President the US has, now, is in the hands of a dozen or more countries, many of them angry at great parts of the world. Few know that apartheid South Africa had 'the bomb'.
There's an inevitability of atomic bombs, again, being used in war. It will happen.
But, we face a slightly different end of civilization than Shute envisioned. Solid circuits, computers, banking, automobiles, cash registers, McDonald's, will disappear in the first flash, ElectroMagnetic Pulse, EMP. How far away? In the early 60's, long before today's circuits were envisioned, an H-Bomb test 800 miles from Hawaii blew out gadgets from circuit breakers to street lights. Luckily, we don't know the exact answer. Yet.
A. Einstein was asked what WW III would be fought with. He didn't know. He DID know what WW IV would be fought with. "Rocks."
'Brother, it's not too late.' (that's the banner at a Salvation Army rally ... also the last image in the movie.)
Read the book, it'll make you think. A half century later, its theme is almost inevitable.
It'll make you think. That's rare in books these days. Even more for books written 50 years ago.
Book Review: A Cold War Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
In conjuring up books that concern Cold War paranoaia, I am often reminded of Nevil Shute's masterful "On the Beach". This book is oriented for people below the age of 12. I believe this because of its dramatic intensity, explicity, and depressing ending. The story involves a navy captain who is attempting to lead a team of scientists through various radioactive plants. Their mission: to discover if in fact, radioactivity will lead to Earth's immineant destruction. The officer's wife begains to dissuade her husband from leading the expedition. However, fate intervenes and the government appoints him for the perilous mission. As they embark, each crew member will have to live in proximity 23 "mates". The main problem on the mission is that many of the crew members loathe each other even more than the expedition. Shute does an excellent job at forming mini-biographies surrounding each character involved in the expedition. Shute revels facts as: Where they grew up, family, characteristics, and numerous other obscure facts. Every integral character has a dramatic presents in each chapter. Exposition is filled with wonderful discriptions of each character and essence of story. Which leads me to the mext paragraph. The narrative is very atmospheric. Atmospheric in the fact that it highly corresponds to the Cold War confusion that plauged America in the 50's and 60's. Shute chooses a documentary style of writing to explain the mission more explicitly. However, Shute aknowledges that spectacle alone will never suceed, characters will! Shute's unabated intusiasm and boyant persona endorsed the narrative to the fullest. In conclusion, this book is a fascinating novel. If anyone chooses to explore and study character development, should be forced to study "On the Beach".Book Review: A Gentler end of the world
Summary: 4 Stars
On the beach is a novel set in the late 1950's about the end of humanity following a nuclear war. This type of story always brings to mind horrible tales of mutant and roving gangs of looter. That is were this book differs from most shock tales of it's kind. Simply put, it's the story of the last survivors of a nuclear war as of yet untouch by the devistation, waiting for the deadly radioactive fallout. To the end they try to put thier affairs in order, prepare for thier fate and maintain thier dignity and humanity.