On the Beach

I have quite an eclectic taste in reading but my preferred genre is War fiction and one of my favorite all time reads is Tom Clancy Red Dawn Rising. On the Beach is basically a love story, If I had known I would have stayed well clear of this book. I started reading and found it an incredibly easy read and loved Nevil Shute's style of writing, becoming extremely wrapped up in this story until the very end. Not my usual type of book but I would recommend it to anyone who is not after a quick fix read with action all the way. This is the first Shute I have read and it will not be my last, I am not ashamed to say I became quite emotional at the end. I am going to try a Town like Alice next.

If you read this as a fantasy or a romance, it's a great book.If you read it as science fiction, it's an an interesting (if slightly dated) story.If you read it as political or sociological comment, it's flawed and unrealistic.SPOILER ALERT!If you knew you were going to die in a few months, along with every other member of mankind left on the planet, would you continue going to work as normal? Soldiering on; doing your duty right to the end... Of course you wouldn't!What happened during the UK Coronavirus lockdown? The sales of alcohol sky-rocketed! Everyone thought, "What's the point of healthy living if there's a virus out there that could kill me in a matter of days?"This was the heroine's attitude at the opening of the story - but the author had to "cure" her and have her convert back to a healthy lifestyle before the end - unlikely, I feel, especially in view of these recent events!As to the idea that the hero and heroine would never consummate their relationship due to one being "faithful" to their deceased spouse, while in the position where this was their last chance of love - that would have been preposterous even when the book was written!

I read this book a long time ago, and always remember it as moving, touching and incredibly sad. I have just re-read it. Although the language is a little old fashioned now, it does not take anything away from what is a very well written story. One of the best books I have ever read, extremely thought-provoking, haunting, and it still moved me to tears at the end. It should be used as a 'must read' book in today's education system, it might make future generations realise just how much mankind can destroy itself.

I am slightly conflicted about 'On the Beach.' I had previously read Shute's 'A Town Like Alice' and liked it for its restrained simplicity of language and plot - never dramatic, but always interesting and full of the colour of the places it described. 'On the Beach' is likewise restrained, but maybe too much - instead of being simple it comes across as overly basic.But is it worth reading? Perhaps. The story is a moving one - I found the ending very affecting, especially since I had gotten to know the characters so well in the preceding couple of hundred pages. But what of those characters? There isn't much to report in this regard - the characters are, for the most part, as bland as the language used to describe them. Only one, Moira, has anything resembling a character arc, shifting from being a drunk to being a loyal companion to the American naval officer she befriends early in the tale.The plot too is essentially non-existent. The action happened before page one, the end of the world has already arrived, and what we see are simply the end days. Shute is at his best when he is describing naval matters - the best parts of the story all take place onboard the submarine tasked with investigating the state of things in the northern hemisphere - but he doesn't think long and hard enough about the societal changes that such a global catastrophe might have wrought. The rich still attend their clubs, where they are waited on by a staff who must be aware that these are the last days of their lives - and yet there is no revolt, there is no dissension, and the essential jobs are still filled by the same people who had filled them previously. Would things have gone that way in real life? It's impossible to tell - but we are getting a glimpse of that world right now.

Overall, I enjoyed One the Beach very much, and it is easy to see why it is considered a classic.For me, by far the most frightening aspect of the book is not the impending doom the characters face, but HOW they face it. At times, the radiation cloud is looked upon almost as a bout of bad weather, an inconvenient aspect of life. Yes, the characters express regret about all the things they won't get to do, but almost as soon as they express it, it is shrugged off. It is the whole "Stiff upper lip" outlook on life, and while it can be frightening, at times the outlook is inspirational, the way one wishes or imagines one would face the end.This aspect aside, I would recommend this book to people.