On The Beach

Ok, so I read two more books in the last weeks of 2009 but didn't get a chance to talk about them. This actually works out well as training at work is going to hamper me from reading in my free time this month.



By Nevil Shute

This is considered one of the best Post-Apocalyptic books out there. Published in 1957 it deals with, what else? Nuclear destruction. Not a cheery story.

What On the Beach is, is a PA story unlike any that I've read so far. It really focused on the thoughts of the characters. It follows the last few months of life of the citizens in south eastern Australia as they watch the radiation that has been spreading around the world from a nuclear war for the past two years.

Not much time is given to the war. Nor is there really much discussion about the parts of the world that have already ended. There is an American submarine commander who takes his ship to the west coast to investigate radio signals from around Seattle. We are given their observations of the areas along the cost but it really is just a description of empty houses and streets.

The plot really focuses on how the different characters in the town cope with the end of their life. Knowing that is is getting closer every day. I found the thoughts of the characters most intriguing. They all deny that their families/lives are over at one time or another. They spend time doing what they love in the present and even planning for the future.

The book really made me think about what would I do if I only had a few months left to live. Would you go to work? Try to do the things you always wanted to do but never made time for? Spend time doing the things you already know you enjoy doing? Also why wait until the end is near. Maybe I should be doing these things now? Who knew I'd get all this from a PA book 53 years old?

Reading the Patrick O'Brian books helped to prepare me for the editing of this book. There are often scene and characters jumps between paragraphs. This can be a bit disorienting until you get used to it. There also was a bit of Australian slang/terminology that I had to look up to understand. Chook farmer anyone?

Overall it was a very touching story.