What a powerful piece of our history. An event that is slowly being forgotten as time goes by. This story covers the details of the Naval battle in Sa What a powerful piece of our history. An event that is slowly being forgotten as time goes by. This story covers the details of the Naval battle in Samar (during the conquest to retake the Philippines from the Japanese) in which, against overwhelming odds, a small group of ships under Admiral Sprague defeated a massive Japanese imperial fleet. It was from this battle that Herman Wouk used for his classic, War and Remembrance. I served in the Navy, so obviously this hits home for me. I can relate to the surroundings, having served aboard a ship, the USS Jouett CG-29, and toured in the Philippines, but I was never in a conflict such as the battle at Samar. Very few have and because of todays technology we may never see another naval battle of its kind. A great piece of military history....more
Brilliant work. Being an old Navy man myself and having spent 3 years on a Guided Missile Cruiser (USS Jouett CG-29) I was really able to relate to th Brilliant work. Being an old Navy man myself and having spent 3 years on a Guided Missile Cruiser (USS Jouett CG-29) I was really able to relate to the details of the life of a sailor at sea, including the experience of sailing through a typhoon.
I grew a little impatient in the beginning, but my journey with Willy Keith, the spoiled, soft, Princeton boy really took hold of me and immersed me into the story as I saw him make his way through the ranks of officers aboard the USS Caine. Even the romantic interludes with his girl, Mae, was not enough to dissuade me from getting into it. This was one of those stories where I found myself so angry and dumbfounded, mostly at the skipper of the Caine, Captain Queeg, that I never wanted to quit listening.
The scenes involving Queeg and his crew, the turmoil during a typhoon which led to the mutiny, and the ensuing court martial was one of the most enthralling pieces I've read in a while. I'm going to have to look for this one in print and try it again some time. I would also be proud to have it in my library. This one deserved the Pulitzer and I would recommend it to anyone. ...more
Based simply on how this book culminated to its end I really wanted to give it 5 stars. But I just can't. I guess I'll discuss my problem wi Actual 3.5
Based simply on how this book culminated to its end I really wanted to give it 5 stars. But I just can't. I guess I'll discuss my problem with the story first and save the best (the reason I would really like to give it a 5) for last.
One book in particular that always comes to my mind when thinking of dystopian literature is Cormack McCarthy's 'The Road'; the reason being the disturbing nature of the story. Nevil Shute's 'On The Beach' is a disturbing tale as well (a big reason for wanting to apply 5 stars), but whereas 'The Road' was all grays and desolation, deranged survivors who, after raping you would like to have you for a snack, 'On The Beach' was a Technicolor setting of polite citizens, tending their gardens, fishing, dancing and carrying on in the face of sure extinction with smiles on their faces and in all good graces.
SPOILER ALERT!
Like 'The Road', this post-nuclear war story does not give the details of the actual war and falling bombs with their crowning mushroom clouds. Instead it picks up after the war has ended and takes us Down Under to Aussie Land where we spend our last days with the last surviving remnants of the human race.
Here is where I struggled with the story. We all know nuclear war is a scenario that could really happen. That's why these stories scare the hell out of people. but the way these survivors are portrayed is way out of the scope of reality in light of what the author has them facing. I could imagine a small handful of individuals handling the situation as these did, but not an entire community. At one point while reading I got a song stuck in my head and humorously imaged these characters in a club all smiling and dancing to the REM song 'It's The End Of The World As We Know It, And I Feel Fine'!
Nope! No one would be feeling fine in this scenario, and so I have to give this a 3.5 rating; even though, as I said in the beginning, I would really like to give it a 5. And here's why.
There are some things that come to the human mind that go beyond, frightening. For a species that possess a self awareness, a habit of seeking answers, and expecting to find them whenever we desire, it can be overwhelming, discomforting to the extreme, when faced with mysteries that personally affect us in which we discover that there are no answers. I think the only thing that stirs our curiosity more than the question of the Cosmo's is the meaning of life, or better yet, death.
It's one thing for a particular individual, a cancer patient for example who has been given six months to live, to know the time of their death. But imagine the entirety of the last surviving group of human beings to know for a certainty that in six months they will all die. It's worse than being frightened. It's an emotion unacceptable to the human psyche-- hopelessness.
Despite the unrealistic nature of the characters in this story, the idea presented and its culmination in this story was one of the most disturbing I have ever read. Knowing-- knowing they were all going to die and that there would be no survivors and that there was not a thing in the world they could do about it is a knowledge that would be as incomprehensible as trying to guess the limits of the universe. I could not imagine living, counting down the time, months, weeks days, and everyone discussing how they want to go out. Fight the sickness or take the pills being freely distributed that will allow the victim to go to a final sleep as opposed to a horrible end of suffering. Imagine being faced with the decision to inject your infant child, or let them go, knowing that if you die first they will suffer alone with no care at all.
This story, despite the failings in character portrayal, is an extremely powerful dystopian tale and one I highly recommend. Actually, I wish that every world leader and person of authority in the military should be required to read 'On The Beach'. Maybe-- just maybe-- it might give someone pause before going into a button pushing frenzy. ...more
Loading...
