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Original poster

On The Beach

54 replies

CoteDAzur · 15/09/2012 19:12

Has anyone read On The Beach?

I'm about 10 pages in and finding it a bit laughable.

Do I persevere?

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 21/09/2012 16:00

Thank you for the advice but I already finished it.

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DancehallDaze · 21/09/2012 14:47

Then if it annoys you so much, close the book and put it down. Give it to charity or take it back to the library or whatever. Life's too short to read books you don't like.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 21/09/2012 14:14

Morality is fine. Even the sexism is understandable as reality of those times. But there is no excuse for the wooden dialogues, which make up 95% of the book as there is practically no prose, not to mention the eye-watering idiocy of the characters - waiting for fishing season although they will be dead before it starts, hoping a couple will marry & have children although they will all die in a few months, etc. Seriously Hmm Are they all morons? Why don't they go further south, make igloos in the South Pole, prepare thick clothes from animal skin, or whatever?

And all that mindless drivel they wouldn't shut up about, like which trees are best etc. Please say I wasn't the only one who wished they would hurry up and die.

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DancehallDaze · 21/09/2012 14:07

It is of its time and certainly wasn't "laughable" to anyone who lived in that era. You have to accept that attitudes and outlook were different. Just stop reading it if you don't like it.

HumphreyCobbler · 21/09/2012 12:51

It is dated in it's social attitudes. I liked this book and found it moving. You have to be able to think in a fifties kind of morality way though. Some of his books are deeply strange to a modern sensibility - anyone read In The Wet?

However I think A Town Like Alice and Round The Bend are superb books.

Whatiswitnit · 21/09/2012 12:43

I read it last year for the first time and found it very dated, full of sexism and the 'stiff upper lip' attitude that people have already mentioned.

The couple with the baby did annoy me, especially at the end when the baby was in the cot and they didn't hold and cuddle it.

maillotjaune · 20/09/2012 20:54

I have just dug my (ancient) copy out inspired by this thread. I remember reading it on a teenage holiday in the 80s at the time when I thought the world might end in a nuclear war (but knew how to shelter under a door eating tinned food until my guts turned inside out with radiation sickness

joanofarchitrave · 20/09/2012 17:57

Hmm, it does make me think about climate change though. I'm watching documentaries about making the Airbus A330 slightly safer, while the Arctic sea ice is shrinking.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 19/09/2012 14:54

They are now petitioning to open fishing season on 10 Aug rather than 1 Sept, because they will be dead in Sept Shock And some are against this idea as it can ruin fishing for years! Idiots Hmm

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 19/09/2012 14:29

LOL. Maybe that's why everyone is just going about their daily lives in the shadow of impending doom Grin

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saffronwblue · 19/09/2012 11:11

There is a very famous quote made by Ava Gardner when she came to Melbourne to make the movie. Somethng like "I cam here to make a film about the end of the world but this place is like the end of the world already".
Melburnians still take umbrage!

stainesmassif · 19/09/2012 11:04

I see I'm confusing the apocalyptic and the dystopic. Still put off.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 19/09/2012 07:55

On The Beach is not a dystopia. It is a utopia - an unrealistic, ideal, stylized end of the world scenario where everyone goes about their lives in a calm and content way, talk about how nice and decent their neighbors are and which trees they will plant for next year.

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stainesmassif · 19/09/2012 07:53

Cloud Atlas was amazing, but you're putting me off On The Beach and I love a bit of dystopia.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 19/09/2012 07:49

One day, you will read Cloud Atlas (its dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories) and kick yourself for not having read it sooner. I will be there to tell you "I told you so" Smile

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 18/09/2012 17:30

Riddly Walker so, so disappointing. Such a 'triumph' of silliness over style. I was really underwhelmed by it.

teatimesthree · 18/09/2012 11:33

Yes, I don't think you can lump them all in at all.

I love Riddley Walker, and found Earth Abides and On The Beach 'interesting' rather than books I would recommend.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 17/09/2012 23:19

I've read Earth Abides a couple of times and enjoy it for what it is basically. I do like dystopian and apocalyptic sci-fi and have always read "vintage" and classic stuff, so I can sort of get my brain into the right mode for the time it was written iyswim and go with the flow. Something set in the 50s say, won't put me off by displaying 50s attitudes towards women, I just treat it as scene setting, the same as I would with a very futuristic setting, and get on with it.
I like Earth Abides more than Alas, Babylon, and I positively hated Canticle for Leibowitz and Riddley Walker, and yet most people always seem to lump them in together and think if someone likes one of them, they'll like them all Confused

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 17/09/2012 20:29

Dune was written in 1965, but is still relevant and definitely not condescending to women like this book.

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 17/09/2012 20:27

I agree with you on Never Let Me Go.

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teatimesthree · 17/09/2012 20:26

Has anybody read Earth Abides? Both racist AND sexist, but also an interesting premise.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 17/09/2012 20:25

Grin That's exactly how I felt with that sodding 'Never Let Me Go' twaddle. They just couldn't die quickly enough for me.

teatimesthree · 17/09/2012 20:24

I think the point about the wife was that she was (a) a little woman as joan says, and (b) in deep denial as she couldn't face the death of her child.

It is a great premise for a book, but I have to say I found the extreme sexism hard to get past, and I read loads of this kind of thing. All the female characters were immensely dim and needed a slap around the head from a brooding male to wise them up.

At least Death of Grass - also v. dated - has its own built in gender critique.

Original poster
CoteDAzur · 17/09/2012 20:23

Don't kid yourself, Remus, even I can't make you look easy to please Smile

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Original poster
CoteDAzur · 17/09/2012 20:22

Dumbo here "forgets" she is going to die in a few months, plans to plant trees (rather than, say, prepare uber-thick clothes and migrate to the South Pole) and I'm the awkward one? Confused

I'm about 45% in and basically skim-reading now. If they get into one more moronic conversation about whether trees are more beautiful in America or Australia, or whether they should plant this tree or that tree, I will start praying that some wild animals come and hurry them to their extinction. (Apologies to the book's fans).

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