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Bleak, gloomy...the end of the world if we're not careful

Customer Rating:

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.

No story, no substance.

Customer Rating:

This is the first book in a really long time that I found extremely difficult to finish. If you're looking for an entertaining story or deep character development, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a morbid, anti-climatic story with little plot and way too much superficial description, this is a book for you. On the Beach was written during the cold war, when the specter of a nuclear apocalypse was ever present. The book takes the "we're all gonna die" mantra to heart. Reading it during the times would have surely resonated, and this is the only real value of the book. It gives a peek into the morbid obsession with nuclear armegeddon. The book flatlines about 1/4th of the way through, and you spend the rest reading about the characters planting gardens, buying items, and other trivial boring crap. You keep expecting something to happen... but nothing does. If you want to read a good post-apocalyptic book from the era, I recommend Day of the Triffids or Alas, Babylon.

Dead World Walking

Customer Rating:

Having been published over fifty years ago (long before Al Gore "took the initiative in creating the Internet"), On the Beach is a bit dated. But the story, that of the survivors of a nuclear war, seems eerily realistic. The book begins on December 27, 1962, about a year after the end of the "short war," (p 9) "the Russian-NATO war, that had in turn been born of the Israeli-Arab war, initiated by Albania," and the "use of cobalt bombs by both the Russians and the Chinese..." during which (p 61) "about four thousand seven hundred" nuclear bombs were dropped. Only the inhabitants of Australia (where the story is set) and Antarctica have been spared death by radiation poisoning. Royal Australian Navy LCDR Peter Holmes is posted "as liaison officer in U.S.S. Scorpion" under the command of thirty-three-year-old Submarine Commander Dwight Lionel Towers, U.S.N. Towers, former resident of Mystic, Connecticut is a bit of a paradoxical character. He believes in doing things by the book, and that "One ha[s] to live in the new world and do one's best, forgetting about the old," yet seems certain that he will one day be reunited with his (undoubtedly deceased) wife and two children. The Holmes family (Peter, Mary and baby Jennifer) invites Towers to their place one weekend and asks their neighbor, twenty-four year old Moira Davidson, to "Keep him occupied..." Of their future (the radiation is expected to arrive less than a year later), she tells him, (p 30) "It's like waiting to be hung," and (p 31) "It's not that I'm afraid of dying...It's all the things I'm going to have to miss..." But her attitude and behavior become more positive as her feelings for Towers become stronger. Holding fast to his idea of a perfect family reunion, Towers struggles a bit in maintaining an appropriate relationship with Davidson. Rounding out the cast is a relative of Moira, civilian scientific officer, John Seymour Osborne, who is hired to go on a submarine cruise to (p 39) "make observations and keep records of radioactive levels..." during which the actions of one crewmember are especially memorable, the mission being undertaken in part due to (p 29) "...radio transmission still coming from someplace near Seattle." Alternately resigned to, and in denial of their fate, the Holmes' create a wonderful garden, Towers readies to see his family, and Osborne, prepares for the race of his life. Especially chilling is the various characters' contemplation of the use of suicide pills. On the Beach is a powerful, unsettling look about the aftermath of a nuclear war. Also good: Voices of Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich.

The end of the world and no one cares

Customer Rating:

"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.

Enjoyable...

Customer Rating:

...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."