Product Description
"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off."
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end....

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 203 reviews)

The end of the world and no one cares

"It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine..."

That line from the old REM song pretty much sums up Nevil Shute's "On the Beach." The world has ended and everyone's pretty much OK with it.

Written in the late 50's and set in the near future of the early 60's, "On the Beach" finds World War III has come and gone. The final battle was set off by a misunderstanding with the bigger nuclear powers shooting first and asking questions later. The result is the northern hemisphere is gone, nuked to oblivion and the southern hemisphere is waiting for the radiation to slowly spread across the entire planet and kills the survivors.

It's these survivors that we meet in Australia. And they're all taking it pretty well. There's no chaos here. Everything is running fairly normally, except for the fact that we're all going to die in about six months. And not a pretty death, but a slow, painful one.

The big problem with this book is the quiet acceptance every character has of this. Yes, there are some characters deep in denial and some are planning for a world beyond six months from now, but never is there any sense of panic or desparation by anyone. The most panicked we get is they move up an auto race a few months becuase the time it's scheduled to take place will be after the radiation hits.

There are some moments of hope in the story that someone might be alive in the northern hemisphere or that the coming end might not come. But these are quickly dashed and then everyone accepts it with quiet resignation.

I'm sure when it was written, this book was strangely scary and virtually prophetic. But reading it now, it's a story that seems dated, with characters who fail to spark much interest for the reader. I haven't read a book since "Lucifer's Hammer" where I actively rooted for the apocolyptic event to happen already just to kill off some of the characters in the story and maybe get things moving. And that's the biggest flaw in "On the Beach"--nothing happens. We don't get to see the end of the world and nothing seems to make any impact on the characters. It's a hard book to read, not because of the subject matter but because virtually nothing happens and none of the characters are interesting enough to make the investment of time worth it in the end.

September 29, 2008

Enjoyable...

...well, insofar as a book about the end of life on earth can be enjoyable. Until I got the book, I'd only ever seen the film, during the making of which Ava Gardner was said to have said that Melbourne was the perfect place for making a film about the end of the world, a remark which the inhabitants of great rival Sydney thoroughly enjoyed. (It's now believed that it originated from a reporter for the "Sydney Morning Herald").

To me, Shute's laid-back, almost flat, style seems to add to the tension of the whole thing as Doomsday slowly but inevitably approaches. The thing that surprises and perplexes me is that things are all, well, so stiff upper lip and stoic. Would there not be riots in the streets? Widespread looting? Complete breakdown of all law and order? Would anyone really worry about things such as starting the fishing season early, so that people get a chance to catch a last one? Don't panic, chaps, or in Oz, No worries mate, she'll be right. I know the Aussies are pretty laid back (I'm a a naturalised one), but they're basically like everyone else. However, if you can suspend disbelief and accept that humans can behave with such dignity in the face of impending catastrophe, you may enjoy this. I did, largely because I enjoyed reading about the Melbourne I know so well.

I also enjoyed the nice touches of inability to confront the unthinkable, bordering on madness - the naval wife who plans garden improvements that she will never see, the submarine captain who stays faithful to his wife and family and buys presents to take back to them, even though they are in the dead Northern Hemisphere. It raises interesting questions in one's own mind - how would I react to such a situation? When the crunch comes, few of us are heroes, even though we'd like to be. A scenario such as Shute paints is extremely unlikely but we are doing it to ourselves slowly with pollution. As the banner in the final scene in the film says, "There is still time, brother."
September 14, 2008

Wanting to stay on the beach

Nevil Shute's On the Beach was written in 1957 amidst the Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation. It has been made into two movies, one in 1959 starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire and a smaller budget film in 2000. Shute was a bestselling writer in his time. "In 2007, Gideon Haigh wrote an article in The Monthly arguing that On the Beach is Australia's most important novel." (From the Wikipedia article on Nevil Shute.)

It's now probably categorized as science fiction, but there really is no impossible or futuristic science throughout the book. At the time it was written, it was an expression of the fears of many. Now, it is more of an alternative fiction, which is really what all fiction is anyway, of what the world would have been like if a nuclear war had broken out. To not get into the details too much, the story centers on Australia after a nuclear war had totally destroyed the northern hemispehere. Slowly, the radiation spreads south. Shute focuses on a group of people located in Melbourne who know that they are going to all die soon from radiation poisioning that is spreading south. It sounds bleak and depressing, which it is. The sadness of the book is the only reason I did not give it a perfect rating. It is excruciatingly sad.

As for the themes, the book tackles suicide. The government manufactured pills for people to take once they began to show signs of radiation sickness. There would be no possibility of recovery once the radiation started poisoning people; nobody could win this battle with death. Through the story, Shute asks, "Would suicide in such a situation be okay?"

The book made me wonder (not that my little bout with cancer hasn't also done this) if I am doing what I would like to do if I knew that I would die in three months. The people in the book were forced to ask this. In the book, most of the people just kept on doing what they had already been doing. I think I would do the same.

In the end, the book really caused me to examine what should be valued in the world we live in. I think I am a better person for having read this book.

Entertaining: 4/5
Inspiring: 5/5
Ethical Thinking: 5/5

This book was so depressing that I do not know if I will ever read it again. I will definitely keep this book. It was great to read and challenging to my thoughts. It would also be a great discussion starter.
July 17, 2008

"The past isn't dead. It's not even past."

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.

July 16, 2008

Terrible and Beautiful

This book is beautiful, beautiful in a sad and heart wrenching way... like finding a dead butterfly. The world is winding down; an all out nuclear war has ravaged and wiped out the entire northern hemisphere. Those who weren't claimed by the bombs themselves died from the radiation. The southern hemisphere waits patiently for their time, as the radiation sweeps slowly southward, taking with it town after town.

In southern Australia the last of the large cities prepares for their demise. One of two remaining American Nuclear Submarines has made it and it's crew reports in to the Australian Armed forces.

This book mainly follows two men, Peter Holmes an Australian in the Navy who is a new father, and Dwight Towers, an American Commander of the Submarine "Scorpion," a refugee in Australia. Peter is assigned to Dwight's submarine as the Australian Liaison, however the military aspect of this novel is truly nothing but background. This is a book about people, who know that death is swiftly approaching through the air and that there is nothing they can do to stop it. At the start of the book it is December 27th, and the radiation is due to reach them in September. We follow several members of the town as they work to go on with their daily lives all the while knowing that everything will be ending. Some live in a state of denial, planting gardens they will not live to see bloom, others attempt to live out what fantasies they can, racing fast cars with reckless abandon. Still others accept what is coming and live their lives the best they can.

This is a story of quiet desperation, terror, acceptance and the decision to die with dignity. The writing style is fine, though not brilliant, perhaps this is because of the time it was written in, or perhaps Shute's idea was grander than his literary ability. Some of the words were awkward, which I simply attributed to my not knowing Australian slang, also many of the male characters can come across as fairly detached while the women verge on a touch of insanity. I contribute this to the fact that it was written in the 1950's when the men were expected to be both strong and reserved, and the women were still considered the "weaker sex." There is also a deep rooted sense of morality and duty that courses through the novel, there is no looting, rioting, or mass pandemonium, rather we see a quite resolve, camaraderie and sense of dignity.

Many have said this novel brought them to tears, though I can see my mom bawling if she read this, I did not cry, instead I found myself feeling empty, disturbed, and emotionally drained. There is no action in this book, save a car race, so if you are looking for fighting, explosions, and mutilations, look elsewhere. This is instead a powerful study of what those last days could be like. I wish they made books like this required reading in school, the next generation might think a little harder.

July 11, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart

Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)
by Pat Frank

Lucifer's Hammer
by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

On the Beach
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson
MGM (Video & DVD)

A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller Jr.