Review of On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute’s 1957 novel On the Beach is one of those novels which is not often mentioned these days, but when it is mentioned, it is with solid regard—a book that potentially transcends its time. Other such novels are John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids, John Christopher’s Death of Grass, Michael Coney’s Hello Summer, Goodbye, and Olaf Stapledon’s The Starmaker. That short list covering the spectrum of speculative fiction, greatest to cheesiest, “solid regard” of books like On the Beach needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Let’s see how much of the grainy white stuff is needed for Shute’s book.

Like George Stewart’s Earth Abides, On the Beach is pastoral post-apocalypse. Set in the aftermath of WWIII, the majority of the world has been wiped out by nuclear war. The story takes place in southern Australia, a place not yet touched by nuclear fallout, and is centered around the lives of four people. The first is the American, Captain Dwight Towers. Piloting the submarine USS Scorpion when the bombs started falling, he now works de facto for the Australian government as there is no US to go home to. Peter Holmes is an Australian officer who has been assigned as liaison aboard the Scorpion, together with another Austrialian, the science officer John Osbourne. And lastly is Moira Davidson, friend of Holmes and young woman at ends what to do with her life. These four people try to rationalize their existence and live normal lives despite the damage they know has been done to the world. Each proves to have their own manner of dealing with the physical, mental, and emotional adversity, but is it enough?

To get this out of the way, On the Beach is not a post-apocalyptic novel full of zombies and mutant wastelands. Like Stewart, Shute approaches the post-nuclear situation from a realistic, human perspective. The actions, interactions, and emotions of Towers, Holmes, Osbourne, and Davidson form the core of the novel, and are pushed ever closer to their limits the more those characters explore the world. A quotidian, pastoral mood arising, On the Beach feels like J.G. Ballard without the anxiety. While the book’s title is a metaphor for ‘retired from military service’, it’s not a stretch to see it as likewise representing atmosphere.

Does On the Beach transcend its 1957 publication date? Yes and no. The looming Cold War threat that Shute brings to its speculative conclusion eliminates that portion of the book’s relevancy. However, the people, their concerns, and their actions and reactions do have a timeless feel. There is something of Shute’s authorial voice that feels classic, outdated, but by and large the character portraits still feel real. Our current, global threats are not nuclear in nature (at least not directly), but human reaction remains relatable in the novel. If there is anything missing, it is the social unrest such circumstances would inevitably give rise to. Another way of putting this is, the four main characters are not wholly representative; chaos is literally off-stage.

In the end, On the Beach is a novel that, as described, will appeal to readers who appreciate the more human side of speculative fiction. Despite the setting being post-nuclear holocaust, Shute focuses on the people’s reaction to the situation rather than the possibilities for horror and sensawunda. That being said, the novel is not as deep psychologically as it could have been; Shute maintains a so-called ‘British austerity’ in portraying the characters. As mentioned, readers of Ballard’s early disaster novels will likely find a lot to enjoy in Shute’s novel, e.g. The Drought, The Drowned World, The Crystal World, etc. (The Drowned World published five years after On the Beach, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn Shute was inspirational to Ballard.)