bundy23's review against another edition
4.0
Another Nevil Shute story about a nice man putting himself out to do a nice thing and eventually being rewarded with a happy ending. I should despite this shit, but nope, so far I've read 9 of his books and all have been impossible not to love. I don't know how he does it...
thomcat's review against another edition
3.0
Saw the film first, liked it. The book has much more; wonder if I missed any hints in the movie? Time to rewatch I guess.
becsti's review against another edition
2.0
★★☆☆☆ | 2 Stars
Found this to be rather tedious and wasn't a fan of how the female characters were portrayed.
Found this to be rather tedious and wasn't a fan of how the female characters were portrayed.
archergal's review against another edition
4.0
Nevil Shute can sure write a nice book. Rhe first part was really engrossing. The story does taper off a bit in the last half, but it's still enjoyable.
The story's a little old-fashioned, with a certain amount of talk about how a woman's life is more complete when she's a wife and/or mother. Ignore that, and remember the book is a product of its time. Notice how much GOODNESS there is among the characters of the book. Doing the right thing is really important for a couple of the characters, and their attitude impacts others' attitudes too. It's a character study, and a very touching one at that.
A good story. I liked it a lot.
The story's a little old-fashioned, with a certain amount of talk about how a woman's life is more complete when she's a wife and/or mother. Ignore that, and remember the book is a product of its time. Notice how much GOODNESS there is among the characters of the book. Doing the right thing is really important for a couple of the characters, and their attitude impacts others' attitudes too. It's a character study, and a very touching one at that.
A good story. I liked it a lot.
hayesstw's review against another edition
4.0
It's interesting to re-read a book after a long time, and see whether your opinion of it has changed. I first read [a:Aldous Huxley|3487|Aldous Huxley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547138835p2/3487.jpg]'s [b:Brave New World|5129|Brave New World|Aldous Huxley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575509280l/5129._SY75_.jpg|3204877] when I was about 17, and found it very exciting and stimulating. I re-read it when I was 57, and after 40 years found it rather flat and dull. I've just finished reading [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] after a gap of about 60 years, and found it as good as when I first read it.
It was interesting to see what I remembered and what I had forgotten. I was about 13 or 14 when I first read it, when I was still crazy about aeroplanes and wanted to be a pilot. By the time I was 15 my ambitions had dropped, and my main interest was cars. From the age of 11 to 14 most of what I read had something to do with aeroplanes, and if [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] had not been about aeroplanes I would probably not have read it at all.
When I first read the book the most memorable things were the technical bits to do with the aircraft. I could recall the love story vaguely, but I could not recall the British Israelite angle at all, though it is quite prominent in the story, though I did recall the part with the planchette.
I read it about the time that the first commercial jets, the De Havilland Comets, were in the news because of unexplained crashes. I seem to recall that when it was determined that the cause of the crashes was metal fatigue I knew what that meant because it was central to the plot of [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] but it is possible that it was the other way round -- that I understood the point of the plot because of the real-life incidents with the Comets.
It was the first book by [a:Nevil Shute|21477|Nevil Shute|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547804311p2/21477.jpg] that I had read, and because I had enjoyed it I went on to read others written by him, though I still thought (and after re-reading it still think) )that [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] was one of his best. I think it has aged well. Of course, one is aware that it belongs to its time, and that many things have changed since then. On the technical side the most obvious thing is air navigation. Back then the cabin crews were small (because the planes were smaller and carried fewer passengers) but the flight-deck crew was large, including, in addition to two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a wireless operator. Advances in electronics have made the last two redundant.
Social attitudes too are different. One of the most noticeable is that sex has replaces smoking as one of the most commonly-described recreational activities. Another is that sex roles were much more rigid back then: males were useless at cooking and cleaning and buying clothes for children; females were useless at research and design.
I find the social differences interesting too, because I'm also reading a historical novel, [b:Dissolution|138685|Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake, #1)|C.J. Sansom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329914905l/138685._SY75_.jpg|133702] by [a:C.J. Sansom|80212|C.J. Sansom|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1236778813p2/80212.jpg]. When reading historical novels I always have one eye out for anachronisms, things that the author gets wrong about the period in which the novel is set. [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] is set in our past, but it was contemporary when it was written. So when I first read it, it was much closer to the time in which it was set and I did not notice such things, but the second time around, it gives an authentic view of a vanished past. Give it another 60 years, and some things in the book may need to be annotated, because there will then be no one around who lived thourgh that period. But I thought it was a good read back then, and it's still a good read now, and probably will be in 60 years' time too,
It was interesting to see what I remembered and what I had forgotten. I was about 13 or 14 when I first read it, when I was still crazy about aeroplanes and wanted to be a pilot. By the time I was 15 my ambitions had dropped, and my main interest was cars. From the age of 11 to 14 most of what I read had something to do with aeroplanes, and if [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] had not been about aeroplanes I would probably not have read it at all.
When I first read the book the most memorable things were the technical bits to do with the aircraft. I could recall the love story vaguely, but I could not recall the British Israelite angle at all, though it is quite prominent in the story, though I did recall the part with the planchette.
I read it about the time that the first commercial jets, the De Havilland Comets, were in the news because of unexplained crashes. I seem to recall that when it was determined that the cause of the crashes was metal fatigue I knew what that meant because it was central to the plot of [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] but it is possible that it was the other way round -- that I understood the point of the plot because of the real-life incidents with the Comets.
It was the first book by [a:Nevil Shute|21477|Nevil Shute|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547804311p2/21477.jpg] that I had read, and because I had enjoyed it I went on to read others written by him, though I still thought (and after re-reading it still think) )that [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] was one of his best. I think it has aged well. Of course, one is aware that it belongs to its time, and that many things have changed since then. On the technical side the most obvious thing is air navigation. Back then the cabin crews were small (because the planes were smaller and carried fewer passengers) but the flight-deck crew was large, including, in addition to two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a wireless operator. Advances in electronics have made the last two redundant.
Social attitudes too are different. One of the most noticeable is that sex has replaces smoking as one of the most commonly-described recreational activities. Another is that sex roles were much more rigid back then: males were useless at cooking and cleaning and buying clothes for children; females were useless at research and design.
I find the social differences interesting too, because I'm also reading a historical novel, [b:Dissolution|138685|Dissolution (Matthew Shardlake, #1)|C.J. Sansom|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329914905l/138685._SY75_.jpg|133702] by [a:C.J. Sansom|80212|C.J. Sansom|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1236778813p2/80212.jpg]. When reading historical novels I always have one eye out for anachronisms, things that the author gets wrong about the period in which the novel is set. [b:No Highway|557153|No Highway|Nevil Shute|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346958173l/557153._SY75_.jpg|1039548] is set in our past, but it was contemporary when it was written. So when I first read it, it was much closer to the time in which it was set and I did not notice such things, but the second time around, it gives an authentic view of a vanished past. Give it another 60 years, and some things in the book may need to be annotated, because there will then be no one around who lived thourgh that period. But I thought it was a good read back then, and it's still a good read now, and probably will be in 60 years' time too,
msjenne's review against another edition
3.0
Oh Nevil Shute, how are you so fascinating?
His books are always about these sort of greyish people who eventually triumph in the end because of their deep-down decency and competence.
There's usually a whole lot of technical details about airplanes.
And just when you're really getting into it, you get slapped in the face by attitudes of half a century ago.
And despite all this, they are addictive as all hell.
In this one, there's a genius engineer named Mr. Honey (not kidding) who is also a crackpot. He discovers a fatal flaw in some airplanes, and no one believes him except his boss who is neither a genius or a crackpot, but he is a decent guy.
So Mr Honey has to go on a crazy air journey halfway across the world, because that's what you do if you're a colorless shy decent genius in a Nevil Shute novel, and then of course some beautiful intelligent women fall in love with him (one of them is a movie star) and decide that the best use they could possibly make of their lives is to keep house for him and his daughter (his wife died tragically in the war) because being a genius apparently means that you have never heard of washing your floors.
Also he is the kindest bravest man who has ever existed but he mainly manifests this by blinking pathetically at ladies who then feel compelled to bring him Ovaltine. Plus he more or less ignores his daughter except when he is using her to experiment with some kind of Ouija Board technology.
Anyway, despite it being completely fucking ridiculous, I couldn't put it down. I don't know.
His books are always about these sort of greyish people who eventually triumph in the end because of their deep-down decency and competence.
There's usually a whole lot of technical details about airplanes.
And just when you're really getting into it, you get slapped in the face by attitudes of half a century ago.
And despite all this, they are addictive as all hell.
In this one, there's a genius engineer named Mr. Honey (not kidding) who is also a crackpot. He discovers a fatal flaw in some airplanes, and no one believes him except his boss who is neither a genius or a crackpot, but he is a decent guy.
So Mr Honey has to go on a crazy air journey halfway across the world, because that's what you do if you're a colorless shy decent genius in a Nevil Shute novel, and then of course some beautiful intelligent women fall in love with him (one of them is a movie star) and decide that the best use they could possibly make of their lives is to keep house for him and his daughter (his wife died tragically in the war) because being a genius apparently means that you have never heard of washing your floors.
Also he is the kindest bravest man who has ever existed but he mainly manifests this by blinking pathetically at ladies who then feel compelled to bring him Ovaltine. Plus he more or less ignores his daughter except when he is using her to experiment with some kind of Ouija Board technology.
Anyway, despite it being completely fucking ridiculous, I couldn't put it down. I don't know.
annrawson's review against another edition
3.0
This novel contained lots of stuff that makes me cross, from old fashioned sexism (although perfectly within period, it was published in 1948) to pseudoscience... but I did enjoy it too much to just fling it across the room.
The pace was very relaxing compared with most modern novels, and I enjoyed it for that. It's years since I read any Nevil Shute and if my memory serves me right A Town Like Alice and On the Beach were far better novels. The characters were a bit one dimensional and stereotypical - the eccentric scientist, and the pretty air hostess with a maternal streak especially.
Still, Shute was an aeronautical engineer and so he was certainly writing what he knew. The story's premise is still very relevant today. It was an entertaining read, but not one I would wholeheartedly recommend.
nkmeyers's review against another edition
5.0
Couldn't put this book down, found dozens of excuses to dip into it throughout the couple days I was reading it. I didn't enjoy it as much as [a:nevil shute|21477|Nevil Shute|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206158172p2/21477.jpg]'s [b:trustee from the toolroom|107300|Trustee from the Toolroom|Nevil Shute|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171570788s/107300.jpg|175852] which had a tighter structure and more enjoyable characters, but some characters and scenes of Highway will likely stick with me for a long while!
jenne's review
3.0
Oh Nevil Shute, how are you so fascinating?
His books are always about these sort of greyish people who eventually triumph in the end because of their deep-down decency and competence.
There's usually a whole lot of technical details about airplanes.
And just when you're really getting into it, you get slapped in the face by attitudes of half a century ago.
And despite all this, they are addictive as all hell.
In this one, there's a genius engineer named Mr. Honey (not kidding) who is also a crackpot. He discovers a fatal flaw in some airplanes, and no one believes him except his boss who is neither a genius or a crackpot, but he is a decent guy.
So Mr Honey has to go on a crazy air journey halfway across the world, because that's what you do if you're a colorless shy decent genius in a Nevil Shute novel, and then of course some beautiful intelligent women fall in love with him (one of them is a movie star) and decide that the best use they could possibly make of their lives is to keep house for him and his daughter (his wife died tragically in the war) because being a genius apparently means that you have never heard of washing your floors.
Also he is the kindest bravest man who has ever existed but he mainly manifests this by blinking pathetically at ladies who then feel compelled to bring him Ovaltine. Plus he more or less ignores his daughter except when he is using her to experiment with some kind of Ouija Board technology.
Anyway, despite it being completely fucking ridiculous, I couldn't put it down. I don't know.
His books are always about these sort of greyish people who eventually triumph in the end because of their deep-down decency and competence.
There's usually a whole lot of technical details about airplanes.
And just when you're really getting into it, you get slapped in the face by attitudes of half a century ago.
And despite all this, they are addictive as all hell.
In this one, there's a genius engineer named Mr. Honey (not kidding) who is also a crackpot. He discovers a fatal flaw in some airplanes, and no one believes him except his boss who is neither a genius or a crackpot, but he is a decent guy.
So Mr Honey has to go on a crazy air journey halfway across the world, because that's what you do if you're a colorless shy decent genius in a Nevil Shute novel, and then of course some beautiful intelligent women fall in love with him (one of them is a movie star) and decide that the best use they could possibly make of their lives is to keep house for him and his daughter (his wife died tragically in the war) because being a genius apparently means that you have never heard of washing your floors.
Also he is the kindest bravest man who has ever existed but he mainly manifests this by blinking pathetically at ladies who then feel compelled to bring him Ovaltine. Plus he more or less ignores his daughter except when he is using her to experiment with some kind of Ouija Board technology.
Anyway, despite it being completely fucking ridiculous, I couldn't put it down. I don't know.
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