Customer Reviews

Pied Piper

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In college I went to a used book store to buy Shute's "On the Beach". They didn't have it, so I bought "Pied Piper" as a consolation. I've read it three times since. Tremendous novel. An aeronautical engineer by training, Shute was a gifted storyteller and writer. Piper is well paced, has many stories within the story of bringing the children back to England - a man coping with old age, feelings of uselessness, the loss of a son; the formation of a deep friendship with the woman his son left behind, and so forth. Shute hits on the timeless themes of courage, fortitude, self-sacrifice, forgiveness etc. without ever coming close to being maudlin. There are no unnecessary speeches from men standing on a hilltop talking about "what it's all for". As John Howard says, while in custody, to the German officer who tells him he must be a very brave man, "No, not a brave man. Just a very old one."

For the record, I think it was made into a movie twice. Once with Monty Wooley playing Howard and then again for television - mid eighties, perhaps - with Peter O'Toole playing the role. Still, as the story is so marvelous, it should be done again for the big screen. Considering Anthony Hopkins's performance in "The Remains of the Day" (which was superior to the entertaining but far less nuanced Hannibal Lecter), I think he would be perfect to play Howard, putting the perfect cap on his career.

Nevil Shute describes the surroundings and characters with such detail it is hard not to see exactly what he wants the reader to imagine. Unlike any other book I have read, I was entranced. I have always been intriqued by stories about WWII, and this is a good one. When elderly Englishman takes a holiday in France trying to get over his sons death, he finds himself the leader of a band of children trying to escape the German invasion.

I was amazed that the movie has not been put on VHS or DVD. The movie follows the book fairly closely. Monty Woolley plays the elderly man, and Roddy McDowall and Anne Baxter play two of the children. Otto Preminger is a German Major. Made in 1942 it is both dramatic and comedic. I highly recommend you try to catch it on TV.

Nevil Shute's love of humanity and storytelling ability are displayed at their best in this deceptively slow-starting tale of escape from the Nazis in early World War II. An elderly Englishman becomes the improbable -- but utterly believable -- guardian of a group of children trying to reach England from France ahead of the advancing Germans.

There are no wild action scenes, no gunshots in the night, none of the trappings of the contemporary suspense novel. But there is tension in large doses as Shute draws the reader in to his tale with careful portraits of ordinary people doing extraordinary things because they simply have no choice. Even minor characters come alive with Shute's vivid writing. All in all, this is one of the most satisfying books I have ever read.

I was so taken by the humanity and love shown by the old man in Pied Piper. He accepted the children as they came--his own kin, the urchins, the abandoned German child... I also liked the realism in the book. War was horrible. It struck the good, the bad, guilty and innocent. The grandfather figure did his best to shield the children from unnecessarily awful realities and explained those he couldn't.

You should read this. I hope they reprint, but if not, your local library will have it.

Nevil Shute wrote stories about regular people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. He doesn't seem to attract much attention in college literature classes, perhaps because he writes about ordinary people. It's a shame because every book of Shute's is a great read. His characters will remain with you long after you've read the book. This tale of a grieving father who became a true hero is one of his best.

I first read this book as a child when, identifying with the children who could have been my compeers, I saw the movie at least five times. I loved the book then, and I love it now. The story is simply told, from the point of view of an elderly Englishman, whom we first meet in his London club during the Blitz. Too exhausted to move to a shelter, he begins to tell his tale to a stranger, who has also decided to sit out the raid, while the Luftwaffe's incendiary bombs fall closer and closer. The old man's story unfolds slowly as tells of a fishing holiday in the Jura--the mountains that border France and Switzerland--in the early months of 1939. The story may, in fact, unfold a bit too slowly for some modern readers who have been exposed to the terse squibs that proliferate novels nowadays, but Nevil Shute is such a skillful storyteller that he draws the reader almost unawares into the narrative, rather in the manner of an expert angler reeling in his fish.

Even though I know the story well, I could not put the book down until the very end. I was, after all these years, inextricably hooked.

Neville Shute is a master of flashback. Who would think that this old man - who didn't even speak French -was capable of herding a dozen children out of wartime Europe? The author draws the reader into his story slowly, making this near-implausible adventure all the more believable by its every-day storytelling. The only recent novelist who comes close to this unique style is Mark Halprin, in his "Soldier of the Great War". Reading Shute reminded me of the paucity of really great story tellers among popular novelists.

"The Pied Piper" is a gripping and human story of evacuation of lost children during WW II. I am surprised that Amazon.com does not have more Neville Shut books. There are a number in print in Europe. He is of course famous for "On the Beach" (book and movie) and "Town Like Alice" (book and TV Movie). These books led me to Pied Piper and many other Neville Shute Norway books in the last few years. I believe they would sell very well today. If no one else re-publishes them, I will when I get a chance. Other NS fans please let me hear your opinions, Yours truly, Thomas B. Reed

Peter O'Toole starred in the 1990 TV film version with Mare Winningham and it was titled "Crossing to Freedom." I remember really enjoying the movie although I have yet to read the book. I checked, but this movie doesn't appear to be on DVD or VHS.

A somewhat earlier Shute novel that again reveals his positive orientation toward people and life. Shares with many other novels the preposterous notion that some Nazis were humane and thoughtful (I'm thinking of Steinbeck's "The Moon is Down" for one), but I don't hold that against the work. We would all do exactly the same things the old man did to save the children, so there develops a great sympathy for him during the course of the reading. And the book is squeaky clean, one that provides some welcome relief from the current onslaught of, say, two females having sex in the toilet stall in "Bright Lights, Big City." We're way far away from that here. And thank goodness.