On the Beach by Nevil Shute
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Book Reviews of On the Beach
Book Review: A very good read!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a ver y good book about the end of the world. The characters are very real and the book is so realistic! Nevil Shute really did it this time. I caught myself sometimes slipping into a daze trying to figure out what I would do in they're situation. I had to read this book for required reading class a few years back. I had never heard of it but it was one of the only books left that looked good. I was a little apprehensive at first, but after a while, I couldn't put the book down. I must say I'll have to recomend this book to everyone!Book Review: A must read
Summary: 5 Stars
I first read this in high school 20 years ago. I liked it then but I love it now.
This novel is about the end of the earth. It shows how we need to cherrish the days that we had and the long term effects of war.
Book Review: On the Beach: A sermon to the Cold War generation
Summary: 4 Stars
Other reviews give a synopsis, so I'll skip that and go straight to an analysis/critique.
I first read Nevil Shute's On the Beach when I was a teenager--about the same time as I read Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon--and I've retained a morbid fascination with it ever since. As science fiction it's not all that great, since it isn't really SF at all. Instead, it is more of an allegory with a heavy touch of absurdism thrown in. Think about it: the denizens of a functioning civilization go about their business with near-normality, behaving one minute as if everything is fine while in the next acknowledging (usually with a large degree of detachment) that a sword is hanging over their heads. This description fits both the book and the actual nuclear/Cold War world of the late 1950s. The only difference is that in the book the blade is already, and inescapably, whistling downwards, while in the real world (and this is Shute's point) the danger might be avoided, if people act right away.
Indeed, Shute goes to great pains to get his original readers to identify with the characters and civilization in On the Beach. The Australian setting is accessible to the English speaker, as a South American or African setting wouldn't be. Aside from the gasoline shortage, which he mentions cursorily on occasion, the characters seem discommoded almost not at all by the war (Moira has to darn Dwight's socks; Dwight has to drink Australian whiskey), and Shute greatly downplays even the travel problems, making them seem only a modest inconvenience. Government and the market both appear to function normally, only beginning to falter a bit at the very end. In fact, most people behave even in the final days as if everything were going to continue. A clerk insists on giving Peter Holmes a receipt for a purchase even though the store is about to shut down; the admiral discusses in some detail the reimbursement procedure that an admittedly-nuked Washington, D.C. will follow for the Australian upkeep of the U.S. submarine even as radiation sickness forces him to bolt for the bathroom. These people know the end of the world is days, even hours, away; they aren't deluding themselves; but still, they can't let go. This fabric of functionality and forced normality makes the world of On the Beach resonate with the real Cold War world: in each the danger, while quite real, is remote from everyday circumstance, leading to an almost schizophrenic existence. (Think "Duck and Cover" commercials airing during a "Leave it to Beaver" episode and you get the idea.)
The characters' ultimate, and universal, reaction to the approaching end of the world further strengthen the allegorical nature of the book. British apocalyptic fiction has always been more fatalistic and pessimistic than its American counterpart, and in no case is this more true than in On the Beach, which is perhaps the most devastating work of its kind. Shute's post-holocaust characters--in fact the entire civilization--simply give up. From an American perspective--the sort that produced the contemporary Alas, Babylon--this is frustrating and unrealistic. To paraphrase a statement of Colonel Graff in another famous American SF work, Ender's Game, our genetic heritage simply doesn't allow us to give up without a fight. But that's exactly what Shute's world does, without even any show of resistance. In the entire book there are only two, or perhaps three, real outbursts of emotional reaction to what's happening. No drastic mobilization to prepare a bunker to wait out the twenty year period of radiation, no desperate attempt to continue the species at any and all cost, as in When Worlds Collide ("Waste anything but time!"); just passive acquiescence and, in the end, mass suicide. This fact--this long, drawn-out, and ultimate loss of hope, which few other works can match--is what makes the book so important. In sum, Shute asked the Cold War reader how s/he will respond to a threat that, unlike the one in On the Beach, was still only potential. Peter Holmes, in his deathbed speech, suggests education. The book's meaning and purpose is best summed up in the closing shot of the original film; the banner proclaiming to an empty Melbourne "There is still time, brother."
On a literary level the book leaves much to be desired. Particularly grating to this American is the terribly contrived American dialect of Dwight Towers, the American sub commander. But despite this, On the Beach is a classic of the genre--if you can stomach it.
Book Review: Bleak, gloomy...the end of the world if we're not careful
Summary: 4 Stars
The transition from night to day begins each morning with a gentle sunrise insidiously piercing through the unwilling blanket of darkness. Eventually the colossal battle becomes fruitless and night gives in to the increasingly unrelenting pressure of sunshine. In relatively little time the seemingly insignificant temperature rise becomes substantial, creeping its way into life, permeating throughout all that doesn't wilt before the sun's potency. The changes are both irrevocable an inevitable.
The atrocities and horrors of war, specifically the aftermath, are just as apparent as that sunrise. Similarly, the nuclear fallout and resulting widespread death is agonizingly slow.
On the Beach is a tale of the realistic horror that could eventually destroy our planet. For those near the epicenters of full scale nuclear war, death is painless and instant. Those not fortunate enough to suffer a sweet, immediate death, face the realization that death approaches at a snail's pace. As the poison of radiation drifts across the ocean southward towards Australia, a U.S. submarine commander named Dwight Towers has to carry on with his mission, and make sense of the world's military actions.
Dwight meets Moira Davidson, a frisky Australian girl with a wild streak, and along with their married friends Peter and Mary, they go about the gut-wrenching final days of their lives. Dwight holds on to the memory of his life, seeking solace in moderate denial, buying gifts for his wife and children who have no doubt already succumbed to the poisonous radiation. Similarly, Peter and Mary plan a garden for future seasons they will never see. Meanwhile, Moira faces death with a slight chip on her shoulder, and a scowl at what could have been. Eventually the four find a dichotomous comfort in knowing that they have no recourse for survival, living their final days with as much vigor, generosity, and soft smiles as possible.
The real strength of this novel is the character development. By learning about the characters' lives and insecurities, strengths and flaws, as well as their likes and dislikes, a great deal of empathy is elicited. Following their depressingly mundane last days during humanity's failing health and infrastructure sheds light on that which we all take for granted, like the simple pleasures and beauty that can be gained from a good drink, an exhilarating race, or a relaxing day fishing.
Humanity should hope that nothing remotely similar to this novel actually occurs. And, even though I'm sure there would be considerably more chaos than represented in the characters' dignified approach, the slow, somber story development accentuates the truly dreary prospect of a slow helpless death.
Book Review: The Last Day's Dawn
Summary: 4 Stars
I read an older edition of Nevil Shute's classic story of the final months of humanity in June of 2007. I still remember the story as both a captivating read and yet a very dark tale. Apparently, a conflict in the Middle East and Balkans led to a domino effect of nuclear war. Shute's future reality (now it would be an alternative reality) has a major difference from our world: many more nations acquired nuclear weapons. Much of the Northern Hemisphere was annilihated as NATO, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China blew one another to pieces. While vast swathes of the Southern Hemisphere survived the fate of artificial dawns, a slower fate was in store as radioactivity inexorably moved south with the winds. This is the geopolitical background to the story.
The human side of Shute's work is on the whole very readable. It ranges from the story of an American submarine captain who lost his family in the war to an alcoholic Australian lady who grew close to him to the tragic story of a young Australian navy officer's family to a scientist who's final dream was to win the last Grand Prix the world would ever see. This is a world where technologically powerful navies have reverted some of their few servicible ships to coal power. This is a world where the horse once again begins to replace the automobile. And it is a world coping with the reality of its own demise. A mysterious signal from North America briefly offers a faint gleaming of hope and leads to a desperate submarine mission to find the cause. However, ultimately, it would prove futile. And so the last humans were given a final respite to order their lives as time inexorably ran out. Some like some members at a prestigious club drank heavily while numerous others sought the comfort of God. Some like the scientist chose to drive for their dreams (in his case literally in particularly desperate and dangerous races). Above it all hung the simple question of how a technologically advanced civilization could destroy itself.
While I don't agree with all the actions of Shute's characters and realize his specific geopolitical situation is now dated, I still found the novel a worthwhile read. It is well written, disturbing, and at times thought provoking. While not perfect, I recommend it with caution. It is not a tale which ends remotely happily.