On the Beach by Nevil Shute
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Book Reviews of On the Beach
Book Review: A second read
Summary: 4 Stars
Whenever later in life you decide what books you enjoyed and yet can't quite get the old internal memory organ to improve intellectually but you know somehow you enjoyed the read more than most - that is just the book you should read again. I recall this novel as a great emotional, sobering journey made in my middle years. That first read was surely exaggerated by experiences of sticking my head under a school desk during nuclear war drills at grade school. Ok, so you have to be a "boomer" to remember this but guess what, given the recent political charade what comes next could be the chance of a nuclear winter as Shute describes not in scientific detail but in human frailty and heroism. Existing leaders who only think about increasing the size of their weapons should read this novel and re-read like I just have. Not only is it a well written story full of emotion and surprises but it is also a warning. It was true when written and still seems to be just on the surface of truth because our way of life has been and still is threatened by our way of life! Full of humor in the face of disaster and the common humane nature of men who lean on each other for strength even at the step of final and terrible death makes the reader stay faithful. These characters are endurable, likable, familiar even when inevitably terminable. Shute doesn't leave us much but maybe one or two survived, somehow - one can hope. Remember, this is fiction - yes? Thank you Mr. Author.Book Review: The End of the Humanity as Determined by Nevil Shute
Summary: 3 Stars
Nevil Shute started out writing this novel working backwards, knowing what ending he would have, the end if humanity (which you know if read any of the other reviews here), then decided to emphasis that by making it as mournful and utterly morose as possible, then fit the events of the story to them, so it's almost laughable to consider that this is how reality could have played out when it's Shute pulling the puppet strings on the characters to achieve his desired ending the way he wanted to achieve it.
Written during the cold war of the 50's, this novel was supposed to highlight the futility of nuclear war. So this was supposed to let those that somehow didn't understand the power of nuclear weapons, that the Soviets, and others, now have the bomb (which they obtained from American citizen spies working with nuclear secrets) and that nuclear war was un-winnable. Now highlighting the horrors of nuclear war and the hideous death toll it would incur on people, let alone the threat to the human race is commendable, but it's the general philosophy of the book that, OK, there are two or three superpowers that have nuclear weapons, making them equal in cruelty, democracy, and liberty so that's it, no point in having a nuclear weapons and that absolutely nothing justifies their use in any way whatsoever. It sidesteps the reality that one of these superpowers, the Soviets, murdered 20 million people, put countless numbers into labor camps, and was an completely oppressive totalitarian society. Put it another way, consider if the novel had the Nazi's winning WWII, that the Nazi's had nuclear weapons and were continuing the huge murders of people, sending people into labor camps, and repressing democracy, would you then have such qualms on the US having a stockpile of nuclear weapons as a deterrant? Would you then think, as the characters in this novel do, that ah well, we all did this to ourselves and thus deserve this outcome? If you answer differently they maybe you should brush up on history. Sure enough one totalitarian society is marketed as more evil by popular culture, but that doesn't change the history books documentation of the horrors by both the Soviets and the Nazi's. One questions if the author would have written the ending different if it had been a nuclear war with the Nazi's as the survivors "remarkably" fighting for humanity and for the future of mankind rather than accepting going out with a whimper.
From reading the other reviews there are two types of basic readers that would find this novel of interest: those that would use it as a political manuscript of how humanity ended (although we're still here) and those that have gone through some traumatic experience in their life. For everyone else, sure you can find something appealing in the story, but it's dated, just reading the first page of the poem by T.S. Eliot gives you the theme, and in this day and age it's just average. If you're an average working person you have a job, busy, have friends, maybe family, and have to parcel your time that you invest in reading a book. You don't have to read this. End of the world novel's are quite compelling, and there's many of them, and more to date, out there. If you want an end of the world novel written around the same time, George R. Stewart's end of the world Earth Abides was a more interesting read, and I would recommend that over this novel.
Book Review: Interesting but bleak
Summary: 3 Stars
What if the powerful countries of the world waged a nuclear war so catastrophic that all life was destroyed, and you were stuck in southern Australia, watching the deadly radiation move slowly, inexorably your way? That is the question posed by this classic post-apocalyptic novel. The inevitable conclusion is rather dreary. However, the characters seem a bit too 1950s, and therefore not quite realistic. Still, it's an interesting, if bleak, what-if scenario.Book Review: On The Beach
Summary: 2 Stars
I was very impressed with the shipping time for the book. However, there was an obvious scar down the entire length of the front cover. It looked as though someone had taken a razor down the front cover and just cut through the first layer of the cover. While I was very satisfied with the book itself (it's one of my favorites), I must acknowledge the severe damage done to the book - it really is sub-par.Book Review: A dull affair
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was recommended after my disappointment with Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." I cannot say it was an improvement.
The characters in the novel are largely one-dimension with little contrast and their interactions are superficial and or stereotypical. John is the lifelong geek who finally gets a thrill. Moira falls for Dwight based on a few half-drunk interactions; this kind of quick connection is the kind of poorly-earned romance typically found in bad movies. Mary is the stereotypical housewife of the 50's whose denial of the reality of what faces her borders on stupidity (count how many times she asks if it's really going to happen to them). In fact, as a more enlightened 21st century reader, there's a lot of subtle sexism and chauvinism in the book that I found rather unpalatable. The men are pretty much all stoics and the women are the only ones showing much emotion. Dwight's by-the-book mentality, even right at the end, is a bit difficult to stomach. I also found his method of coping with grief to be a bit too much to buy -- maybe I would have if everyone else didn't have some measure of it as well.
On the whole, I found most of the book difficult to accept as genuine. The author wanted denial to be an evocative and reoccurring theme of the book, but I never feel he earned it with what he wrote. Plus, he never really goes into any deeper issues of what coping with the end of humanity would be like. It's mostly kept on a mundane level. Plus, where's the diversity of reaction? Are we really to believe everyone reacts in mostly the same way? The book was emotionally empty.
There was little of interest in the plot. I don't need action to keep me interested, but much of the plot seems extraneous in that it didn't really advance the story. A lot of the narration could have been excised without really losing anything.
The author's writing was very unimaginative and rote. He overuses words far too much (count how many times you see the word "presently" and then count how many times it was unnecessary (hint: the numbers will match)). The characters often talk in very formal, stilted language. There was one bit of dialogue, no more than a page's width, that had the word "ought" three times. Most all of the descriptions are very plain and to the point and never access anything higher. He often introduces knowledge he wants the reader to know (such as why the war started, why there's still electricity, etc) in a forced and obvious way via dialogue through his characters.
I definitely would not recommend it.