On the Beach
by Nevil Shute
List Price:
Our Price: $12.99
You Save: $8.96 (41%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.22 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nevil ShuteEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-08-01
ISBN: 0899683657
Number of pages: 250
Publisher: Lightyear Pr
Book Reviews of On the Beach
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.
Summary of On the Beach
Following the war, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation. Then a Morse code signal is picked up and the submarine must set sail through the bleak ocean to search for signs of life.Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.28
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
World Made by Hand: A Novelby James Howard Kunstler
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 2008-02-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
Lucifer's Hammerby Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Del Rey; Published: 1985-05-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.33
Price in other shops:
Alas, Babylonby Pat Frank
Buccaneer Books; Published: 1990-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.11
Price in other shops:
Fail-safe (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2000-10-31; DVD
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops:
The Roadby Cormac McCarthy
Knopf; Published: 2006-09-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.57
Price in other shops:
One Second Afterby William R. Forstchen
Forge Books; Published: 2009-03-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.97
Price in other shops:
Earth Abidesby George R. Stewart
Del Rey; Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
The Postmanby David Brin
Bantam Books; Published: 1997; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $19.15
On the BeachPECK,GREGORY; Release date: 2000-02-29; DVD
Best price: $6.24
Price in other shops:
Alas, Babylonby Pat Frank
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2005-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: