Review: On the Beach

On the Beach by Nevil Shute
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience with this book. Spoilers follow. Read at your own risk.

On The Beach is a book about a group of largely Australian and American people in the months following a nuclear war that encompassed all of the northern hemisphere. The fallout from that war is slowly drifting ever southward killing everyone in its path. Due to the differences in weather patterns, it takes time for the fallout to reach the southernmost points of inhabited land masses.

The book was written in 1957 and was hailed at the time as a significant anti-nuclear war book. The story is reasonably well told within the context of the time in which it was written. The women are largely accessories for the men who are the focus of the narrative. The cities and villages all adhere to a stereotypical 1950s ethos of civility. [The book also unironically views government officials as capable and competent - think Raiders of the Lost Ark and the "top men" researching the Ark.]

The book is notable in that it never offers the characters a chance of hope of survival. In every instance where survival is discussed, it is dismissed out of hand with a note that everyone will die. The characters then go on with more mundane activities such as planning parties, planting gardens, and caring for children. The women are most likely to ask if there is a chance of survival with the men being more likely to offer a kind-hearted but stoic version of "nope, now let's think about something else".

The war was conducted using cobalt bombs launched between Russia and China. However, Russia has been giving away bombers to other nations and cobalt bombs are "cheap". Egypt used a Russian-supplied bomber to drop a cobalt bomb on Washington D.C. The Russian markings on the bomber cause the US military to believe that the Russians have attacked and counterattack. This draws the rest of the northern hemisphere into the war.

There are several issues that undermine the narrative. Some of those issues are best understood as resulting from having seventy additional years of science to help inform how nuclear weapons work.

- The book focuses on cheap cobalt bombs. There is no hard evidence of any nation developing such a bomb. It is theoretically discussed by anti-nuclear activists, but no military has ever developed, much less deployed, such a weapon.

- The book's presentation of nuclear fallout is not in keeping with any understanding of how it would happen in reality. Irradiated debris would certainly end up in the air, but it would come back down again quickly enough. The idea of a global cloud of radiation slowly settling over the earth is contrary to how such things work.

(For the record, nuclear fallout will kill millions and is very serious business. People can still survive if they live far enough from where the bomb explodes and if they take certain precautions.)

- The characters in the book take no precautions to help them survive. It is possible to decontaminate surface soil contaminated with cobalt-60. Mostly, that involves scraping off a thin layer of soil and storing it somewhere until the 5-6 year half-life has reduced any life-threatening potential. It isn't easy, but it is possible if precautions are taken.

- The author has given the characters uniform patterns of speech. Almost everyone sounds as if they stepped out of a 1950s vintage British movie where the characters are all erudite. It is only towards the end of the book that we encounter someone who is more workaday in their speech patterns.

-- The book involves Australian and US naval personnel. Both sides have remarkably similar speech patterns.

- "suicide pill kits" are distributed to pharmacies in sufficient potency and quantities to permit anyone who wishes to use them. Most people wait until the symptoms of radiation exposure become clear before doing so. This is all presented as an example of sound government planning.

- Everyone carries on as if nothing has happened. People still run their stores. Patrons still pay for goods. There is a concern for having gainful, if somewhat relaxed, employment. Coal mining continues so that the power plants can produce electricity. People plan for events in the years to come despite the narrative making it clear that people will not survive the coming radioactive fallout that will arrive in months. More human reactions would include a certain level of chaos.

-- As an example, some government minister has to be persuaded to allow the fishing season to start a few weeks early so that people can go fishing before the fallout arrives. People are otherwise prepared to abide by the prior restrictions on the fishing season. The minister passes this change as a "one-time only" circumstance after a bit of persuasion by other members of his social club.

The most realistic actions within the book are where people begin to cut loose from the formal social/military structures that otherwise defined their lives. In one case, a sailor leaves a submarine that is exploring the west coast of the United States. Being below water protects the submarine from radiation. The sub surfaces off the shore of the sailor's hometown. He swims ashore without permission to explore.

In the other case, a scientist came to own a Ferrari racing car in the days following the nuclear war. That sub-plot terminates with the last Australian Grand Prix. The drivers race with little concern for their personal safety as they would prefer to die doing something they enjoy than spending a week succumbing to radiation-induced illness. Much death and wreckage is the predictable result.

On The Beach is a satisfying read for those who want to experience an emotional case against nuclear weapons. It is an otherwise unproductive experience.

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