Round The Bend [Hardcover]

Nevil Shute (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: William Morrow and Company, Inc.; Queen's House ed republished 1978 edition (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892440538
• ISBN-13: 978-0892440535
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,438,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nevil Shute Norway was born in 1899 in Ealing, London. He studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his childhood passion, he entered the fledgling aircraft industry as an aeronautical engineer working to develop airships and, later, airplanes. In his spare time he began writing and he published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926, using the name Nevil Shute to protect his engineering career. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they had two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death in 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), A Town Like Alice (1950), and On the Beach (1957).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shute's best, at tale of better living through competence, July 4, 2002

By 

Gary M. Greenbaum (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Round the Bend (Paperback)

Tom Cutter, tired after World War II and the loss of his wife (he blames himself for her suicide), comes to the Persian Gulf to begin a small-scale aviation business. He throws himself into the business and makes a success of it. The business really takes off after he hires childhood friend Connie Shaklin as chief engineer, and soon after, Connie's sister Nadezna, as his secretary. But Cutter soon notices--Shaklin is giving semi-religious talks as he works, which are attracting attention and support not only from his co-workers, but from the Arab population, as they previously did in Cambodia, and when Shaklin is forced to go to Indonesia, again, he attracts attention and support, somewhat to the confusion of Cutter, who nevertheless is unfailing in his support of Shaklin, who seems to be beginning a religion that crosses religious boundaries.

Shute's most thought provoking of novels, as a new prophet arises in the form of an aviation engineer who adamantly denies he is a prophet, somewhat to the confusion of his friend and his sister.

Even the small characters (a gunrunner who, in seeing Shaklin and his work, is reminded of the small town and church in the Midwest where he grew up, for example) are finely drawn. And Shute often gets rather subtle--Cutter, whose first name is Thomas, three times denies Shaklin's divinity in a talk with the British officer, Captain Morrison.

Beautiful and gentle work by a master storyteller. You will look for villians in vain in this book. His best.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zen and the art of aircraft maintenance, November 11, 2000

By 

D. Hicks (Byron, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Round the Bend (Hardcover)

I'm not entirely sure that there is a "typical" Shute book, but this one is both typical and atypical. It is typical in that it is mostly about post-WWII era aircraft operations, and rather more intense on the aircraft angle than most of his other books. Also, like several of his other books, it pokes about at the meaning of morality.

On the atypical side, "Round the Bend" is somewhat alegorical and "preachy" in the same sense as "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". In fact, I'd be willing to bet that Robert Pirsig read "Round the Bend" before he wrote "Zen".

Folks comfortable with Shute's writing will find that "Round the Bend" has his trademark writing style -- spartan, yet with a delicious amount of descriptive detail, intense, yet without an identifiable climax. As usual, he's not given to plot twists, but rather focuses on the development of human character and the way it plays out under unusual circumstances.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The romance of aviation coupled with a universal religious e, February 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Round the Bend (Hardcover)

This novel captures the romance of the age of aviation. Shute adds to it with a twist of universal religious experience. As the airplane ushers in a reduced sized world, Shaklin offers a reduced sized, compressed overview of the religious experience and becomes the guru of the Fifties. With today's focus on the Persian Gulf, this snapshot from past adds flavor to our knowledge of the area through Tom Cutter's eyes. This is a book that that will leave you with a glow.