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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable, April 26 2003
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unforgettable!, Feb 2 2004
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.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Narrow-minded, unpleasant and boring., Mar 10 2009
Nevil Shute wrote Pied Piper in 1942, just two years after the start of the war and the events that form the backdrop to the story. It's not surprising therefore that the tone of the book is pro-British and anti-German. What is surprising, is how anti-French, anti-Jewish and generally anti-everything-not-middle-class-British the book is. In fact, I think few present-day readers of Pied Piper will feel much sympathy for the book or for its main character, Howard, a retired solicitor.
Early on it is described how Howard's daughter has married an American and gone to live in America, but then returns home: "She'd had a spot of bother with him (the husband). Howard didn't know the ins and outs of it and didn't bother about it much; privately he was of the opinion that his daughter was to blame for the trouble.(...) Howard backed up Costello (the husband) and put pressure on his daughter, in the belief that a woman who is separated from her husband is never very happy".
When it comes to the French people that Howard comes into contact with, they're generally characterised as a greedy and unpleasant bunch and the most sympathetic French character in the book, Nicole, is suitably ashamed of them. When the refugees are told, during their trek through France, that they have to spend the night in a cinema, her reaction is: "Perhaps as it is under German management it will be clean. We French are not so good at that". Nicole also acknowledges readily the moral superiority of the English. When Howard explains that he has no connection to the children that he is rescuing, she reacts: "We French people will never understand the English". Nicole, and presumably Shute, sees Howard's bravery and selflessness not as an individual's characteristics, but as a national trait. But the book is at its most unpleasant in describing Marjan, a young Jewish boy who has witnessed the murder of his mother by the Nazis. While the other children in the book react to the traumatic events that have befallen them by becoming silent and withdrawn, Marjan has become a scary, vengeful psychopath. The author writes about Marjan's Jewishness in a way that not many people would find acceptable nowadays, as in a passage where Nicole tries to make conversation with Marjan. She asks him what he would like to do when he grows up: "Would you like to grow up (working) with horses? Or would you rather buy things and sell them for a profit?" After all, she thought, it would be difficult for him to go against the characteristics of his race."
After that, it seems trite to point out that the style of the book is leaden and the dialogue stilted. Shute has the irritating habit of inserting the odd French word in italics ("They set off after déjeuner"), presumably in case we've forgotten we're in France. Nicole's reminiscences of her relationship with Howard's son are laughably unbelievable and what little tension the story has, fizzles out well before the end.
A book can't be blamed for reflecting the prejudices of its time, but we shouldn't ignore them either. My hope would be for this very slight book to be allowed to fade away into history, an unpleasant reminder of the prejudices of a hopefully bygone age.
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