Nevil Shute's "On The Beach" is a classic for good reason. Shute takes the most horrific event one can imagine—a worldwide nuclear event—and then turns the microscope on it, focusing in on just a few ordinary people who must wait for death as it drifts over to their hemisphere. We see military personnel, housewives, businessmen, and more. They come alive because they are just like you and me and the people next door.Shute's very great accomplishment here is to examine how each of the characters deals with their certain death. Everyone knows they'll die eventually; ...
