The cover of the book owned by Saras’ father
The Kochi Reading Group's book selection for September was the apocalyptic novel On The Beach by Nevil Shute. Published in 1957, the novel presents a group of people in Melbourne waiting for a deadly radiation to reach them from the Northern Hemisphere. Two movies were made based on the book, one in 1959 directed by Stanley Kramer starring Gregory Peck as the Commander of the US submarine, Dwight Towers, and Ava Gardner as Moira Davidsson, the love interest. Again filmed in 2000 with the date of the action changed to 2006.
The book evoked strong feelings in all KRG members. KumKum called it “boring” and complained initially to Priya and Thommo about their book selection – though to be fair to her, she felt the book became interesting as she read on. There was also vehement criticism of the book by Joe especially pertaining to the technical aspects of the command and control of nuclear weapons. When you read Joe's commentary on his reading selection, you will get a very succinct understanding of why such a situation is unlikely to happen in this present time. The rest of the group fell somewhere in between, where many felt that the scenario was quite possible and wondered about the eerie coincidence of the Russia-Ukaraine war going on right now and the similarities with the Covid Pandemic in 2020.
The book was first published as a four-part serial in the Sunday Graphic in April 1957. The term “on the beach” is a Royal Navy term meaning "“retired from service.”
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.
Later printings of the novel included the above lines of Eliot's poem along with the closing lines on the title page under the author's name
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Thomo in his introduction of the author said that while he was reading the book he happened to listen to Carl Sagan, the famous cosmologist, who said the same thing: that in the event of a nuclear catastrophe, the world would not come to an end, we would die but the world would carry on as before. Life as we know it would disappear. Priya felt that the author was trying to caution people.
Thomo in his introduction of the author said that while he was reading the book he happened to listen to Carl Sagan, the famous cosmologist, who said the same thing: that in the event of a nuclear catastrophe, the world would not come to an end, we would die but the world would carry on as before. Life as we know it would disappear. Priya felt that the author was trying to caution people.
Poster of the 1959 film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Dwight and Ava Gardner as Moira
Thomo and Geetha saw the 2000 movie based on the book and said that it was set in a later time than the 1961 in the book. In the 2000 movie, scientist John Osborne crashes his Ferrari to end his life, differing significantly from the book where dies of carbon monoxide poisoning, starting his car and sitting in the closed garage. Thomo felt that if he had made the movie, he would have shown Osborne crashing his car in the race, which he felt was an appropriate way to die for a race-car enthusiast.
Poster of the film made in 2000
