Nevil Shute - not a big fan of women? Or people in general?

Pastoral is one of my favourite stories. It was unexpectedly on Radio 4 once in the afternoon and had me sobbing behind the wheel of the car! I haven't read On The Beach so can't comment.

I've read quite a few Neville Shute as I quite like WW2 fiction and I think they are interesting and unusual angles. At least he does write female characters, but of course they reflect the time they were written. Don't give up on the basis of one book, I'd say.

Well, no, I don't think anyone would expect a cheerful read, given the situation the characters are in, it is meant to be disturbing. It's just that he deals with it so ineptly, IMO, that you end up being almost equally as disturbed by the characters' strange behaviour as by the awful situation they are in.

It makes it all seem quite unreal, so that you can't take it seriously, when possibly one of the author's aims at the time he wrote was to get people thinking about the Cold War and possible nuclear annihilation, and possibly taking action to help prevent it. If that was his intention, I can't help feeling that he failed dismally.

As Zero said, Pied Piper is full of compassion. It's one of my very favourite books. The main character is just so unassuming but does such a heroic thing.

Trustee from the Toolroom is also good, and A Town Like Alice is, of course, a modern classic. I've also enjoyed Beyond the Black Stump and Requiem for a Wren. They are all of their time, though, with the attitudes that come with it.

On The Beach was never intended to be a cheerful read.

Not read any of his others, so I can't comment on them, but to be honest On the Beach (which I read after seeing the old film, with Antony Perkins late one night on TV) was enough to put me off him completely, so I don't think I will be trying any others.

Snap cornflakegirl I thought exactly the same after reading 'On the Beach'! It's very weird isn't it? As if everyone would just calmly carry on until they were physically unable. The strange attitude to women as well! It's been a few years since I read it but one character had a female secretary who carried on working til nearly the end, then left her boss a note explaining that she had gone home to take the suicide pill and 'thanking him for being so kind to her'. Yes, all the women were very docile, grateful (and stupid!)

I also remember the scene with the couple and the baby, getting ready to take the suicide pills. The father asks her if she wants to hold the baby (as she dies) and she says something like 'No, I'd prefer to remember her as she was'. Unbelievable!

I also think Neville Shute must have been a very strange man, lacking in emotional intelligence. It's like it has been written by an alien.

I've only read On The Beach and A Town Like Alice, so can only form an opinion based on those two novels.

I loved ATLA (read as a teenager). He created a very strong-minded, independent female character in that. She was a survivor of the Japanese soldiers' brutal march across Malaysia (I think it was - must re-read it), saw her lover crucified by them and die (as she believed). I don't think NS wasn't a fan of the strong women in that novel. It felt to me that he was rather in awe of them.

Did Shute have any humanity at all?

On The Beach has not aged well, to put it mildly.

I think the accusation of inhumanity against Shute would be countered by (re) reading The Trustee From The Toolroom. The whole thing is suffused with a patronising air of "the working classes, they may not use the right cutlery, but aren't they so honest and direct and good with their hands? I would swap with them immediately were it not for their terrible clothes, houses and, my dear, the food!" which will set your teeth on edge. But if you put that to one side as a product of when it's written, Shute's respect for his characters shines through, and you'd have to have a hard heart not to be caught up in it by the end.

Oh dear - I can't help with On The Beach - it's too long ago since I read it.

But I've read The Pied Piper within the last couple of years and found it full of compassion and understanding. It also said some things about the effects of being caught up in war as a civilian that I haven't seen anywhere else. Definitely "of its time" but I can recommend it.

I didn't think On The Beach was one of Shute's better books, disappointingly as the premise for the novel had the expectation of being an exploration into the hearts and minds (apols for cliché) of people being in an extraordinary situation, about as extraordinary as it gets.
Have you tried A Town Like Alice ?- there is more to the story than in the film and, although it is a novel of it's time and therefore there are parts that today would verge on casual racism, there is, I feel, a greater insight into the thoughts and feelings of the main characters. The female 'lead Jean' is , or at least becomes through the circumstances, a very strong character.