Dead World Walking | On the Beach

Enjoyable... | On the Beach | Nevil Shute

books:


	• On the Beach Nevil Shute Ballantine Books, 1983 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 206 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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

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.

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Dead World Walking

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.

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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."

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"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....