• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

On The Beach

Libre

Libre

Member
I've almost finished the book. I have about 30 pages or so to go, so I don't know quite how it finishes, but I'm ready to talk about it.
This book, published in the late 1950's, is the defining work of its kind. In fact, it's the ONLY work of it's kind. In the genre of post-apocalyptic literature - and I've read most of it - none of the others really broke free of the mantle of "science fiction". Compared to this incredible work, they are all pulp. Some more sophisticated than others, but, none of them approach the status of a literary classic, as does Nevil Shute's On The Beach. The last one I read before this, The Day Of The Triffids, was great, and is a classic too - but it's still science fiction - and a HUGE distance from the profound greatness of On The Beach.
I'm not too worried about spoilers - everybody knows the story, pretty much, and anyway I'm not going to say anything you don't find out right away.
What makes On The Beach different from the others, is essentially 2 things. 1) this is really a PRE-apocalyptic story, in that the characters you are involved with, are existing BEFORE - rather than AFTER - the great calamity. That calamity has affected the rest of the world, but they are waiting for the end, which slowly approaches.
2) the total lack of sensationalism. In all the others, there is mass hysteria and confusion (to be expected of course). In the other books of the genre (The Day of the Triffids, The Stand, Alas Babylon, Lucifer's Hammer, etc etc) there is rioting, looting, starvation, anarchy, desolation, etc. In this fine work, the sensationalism is non-existant, as you are involved deeply with the several main characters and their families.

This is a more mature work, and ultimately much more depressing. This is not escapist literature like the others - it's the opposite, in that it forces you to confront the possiblity of quiet annihilation.

The others are all comic books without the pictures. It's so damned depressing I'm nearly in tears on the subway reading it.
 
Agh, I started posting a reply, walked away, and it told me I wasn't logged in when I came back, finished it, and tried to preview.

I read On The Beach quite some time ago, but I remember extremely well the depressing mood it got me in as I was nearing the end of it. It is definitely a fantastic book, and I agree with you that it is different than most other apocalypse books. I remember it was extremely interesting to follow each of the characters, and how each of them decided to use their remaining time. If I remember correctly, some even almost chose to act like nothing was wrong, and continue with their daily lives as if nothing was going to happen. This makes for a very realistic "quiet" annihilation as you said, and it's very depressing, but also makes the reader wonder what they'd do in such a scenario (or it made me wonder at least). I still remember the very end
each character's scene with the pills, and where they choose to kill themselves, and with whom.

Almost brought me to tears, very good book :D
 
I have nothing to add, except it's one of the greats of the genre. I love the last scenes in the book. It was also made into a damn fine film.

Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon was, I think, a hopeful response to this book, with it's story of a group of survivors in a small town in central Florida. I found George R. Stewart's Earth Abides, which was published 10 years before Shute's book, to be almost as depressing as On the Beach. I found the ending in that one to be extremely haunting, in it's descriptions of man's monuments slowly falling to the elements. I love this genre!!
 
I have rarely read a more moving, or effective, book.
Yes, Earth Abides was also terriffic - I loved that as well.
But On The Beach is a powerhouse. The movie also was great - I remember it from the Late Show years ago - I'll have to rent it and watch it again.
Maybe I've seen to many Twilight Zones or read too many other books of this genre, but I could imagine some way to try to use the submarine as a fall-out shelter. They said the earth was going to be uninhabitable for like 20 years. Commander Towers was in his early 30's. Why couldn't he take a few people on board - including of course Moira Davidson, and stuff the sub with canned food and figure out a way to get fish and kelp and stuff out of the deep ocean? I realize how impractical this suggestion is, but I would have at least tried. They accepted their fate too easily, it seemed to me - they had like 2 years to try to come up with something. Actually, the fact that they didn't - or couldn't - was more true to life and made the book more effective - but I was still disappointed that nobody tried to do anything.
 
I wasn't even aware they had made it into a movie, I'll definitely have to check that out.

Like you said, I think the fact that nobody did anything(or couldn't) added a big sense of realism to the book. It made the tone of the book much more hopeless, as everyone knew what they were doomed to, and didn't react frantically or enthusiastically(nobody went out of their way to loot, rape, kill, or anything). If I remember, the scientist used his money to buy a racecar and race. He didn't steal the racecar, he didn't drive like a maniac down any free roads to cause any chaos - he went to the race tracks with his car, and just raced. Which doesn't seem out of the ordinary, if you ignore the fact that he probably wouldn't have been able to afford it if he were planning on living longer. Nobody did anything crazy because they knew they were going to die, they just continued with life quietly until the end came. I actually liked that aspect of the book, it seemed much more like how people would respond in such a situation. Did they really have two years though? I thought they spent a lot of time trying to reach that signal they got, thinking someone was alive(as their last hope) then after they found out no one was, they just gave up - maybe not even seeing a reason to try if no one else is alive. I could be wrong though, as I read the book quite some time ago.
 
First off, the movie is great - as I remember it. GREAT cast - Gregory Peck, Ava Gardener, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins in the lead roles.
I'm definitely going to rent and watch it this weekend. Reading the book, I could visualize these characters in a way that made them even more real and poignant.
They did have about 2 years. When the book opens, the war in the Northern Hemisphere had been over about a year or more already, and the story follows the characters till the end, which is the better part of another year. They do take a lot of time to find the signal and cruise around and all, but others could have been working on SOME kind of solution. I realize trying to beat the radiation was a hopeless task, but I don't know - Captain Kirk always managed to save all their skins at the last second despite impossible odds - I'm kind of used to that approach. But as we've both agreed, the lack of totally far-fetched scenarios made it all the more powerful - and depressing.
 
I posted about the telemovie on another thread, but I just wanted to mention it again here. In 2000 there was a telemovie of the book released. *Very* powerful. Unfortunately I can't compare it to the older movie, however. I'm reading this book just as soon as I get into the right frame of mind. The movie affected me so much that I really feel I need to prepare myself for the book.

See here for IMDB synopsis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top