Breakfast at Tiffany's was an embarrassment and a disappointment. But now I'm reading On the Beach. Much better.
This is the third Neville Shute book I've read. This fellow deserves wider recognition. Yes, some of his works were made into movies, but one hardly ever hears his name these days. Each book of his so far has been utterly memorable, even though his prose is ... homely? Workaday? Understated. Straightforward. Whatever, his prose manages to snag me within the first chapter without being in the least showy or dramatic.
This book is a prime example. He's writing about nuclear Armageddon, but does he narrate the war? No. Does he show us people struggling in a nuclear wasteland? No. Instead, he gives us people untouched by the war, but waiting for the winds of the planet to bring death from the northern to the southern hemisphere. It's surprisingly touching.
This is the third Neville Shute book I've read. This fellow deserves wider recognition. Yes, some of his works were made into movies, but one hardly ever hears his name these days. Each book of his so far has been utterly memorable, even though his prose is ... homely? Workaday? Understated. Straightforward. Whatever, his prose manages to snag me within the first chapter without being in the least showy or dramatic.
This book is a prime example. He's writing about nuclear Armageddon, but does he narrate the war? No. Does he show us people struggling in a nuclear wasteland? No. Instead, he gives us people untouched by the war, but waiting for the winds of the planet to bring death from the northern to the southern hemisphere. It's surprisingly touching.