Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Kbh. Skrifola, tr. Christiansfeld, 1958. R 64. Lommeromanen
Description
Fiction. Literature. Thriller. HTML: Theodore Honey is a shy, inconspicuous engineer whose eccentric interests are frowned upon in aviation circles. When a passenger plane crashes in Newfoundland under unexplained circumstances, Honey is determined to prove his unorthodox theory about what went wrong to his superiors, before more lives are lost. But while flying to the crash scene to investigate, Honey discovers to his horror that he is on board one of the defective planes and that he and his fellow passengers, including a friendly young stewardess and an aging movie actress, are in imminent peril.
User reviews
LibraryThing member melwil_2006
I never thought I'd gobble up a 1948 book about flight engineering. But then, considering my history with Nevil Shute, I really shouldn't be surprised.
Nevil Shute was the author of the first 'grown up' book I ever read - A Town Like Alice when I was nine. My love for that book is eternal, and has
Until this one. It tells the story of Theodore Honey; a quiet, unsociable man, widowed during the second world war and trying to bring up a young daughter. He's quite brilliant - not only in the area of fatigue in planes (which is the focus of the book) - but also in 'stranger' areas, such as 'spirit reading'. When he is sent off from England to Canada to examine a wreckage of a Reindeer plane, he discovers that he is flying in a rather unsafe version of the same plane. So he decides to ground it. Dramatically.
Nevil Shute's books, although technical, are all about the characters. Honey is joined by a strong group - from his young daughter, to the pilot of the plane, to the young air hostess and aging actress who both foster quiet affection from the man. The story is told by Dr. Dennis Scott - Honey's boss - which is one of the techniques I love about Nevil Shute books.
Although this wasn't a thriller or action novel by any stretch of the imagination - I found myself holding my breath during important meetings, and at key moments. I stayed up way later than intended to get it finished.
Nevil Shute was the author of the first 'grown up' book I ever read - A Town Like Alice when I was nine. My love for that book is eternal, and has
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been added by a love of On The Beach, but I haven't really been able to get into some of Shute's other books.Until this one. It tells the story of Theodore Honey; a quiet, unsociable man, widowed during the second world war and trying to bring up a young daughter. He's quite brilliant - not only in the area of fatigue in planes (which is the focus of the book) - but also in 'stranger' areas, such as 'spirit reading'. When he is sent off from England to Canada to examine a wreckage of a Reindeer plane, he discovers that he is flying in a rather unsafe version of the same plane. So he decides to ground it. Dramatically.
Nevil Shute's books, although technical, are all about the characters. Honey is joined by a strong group - from his young daughter, to the pilot of the plane, to the young air hostess and aging actress who both foster quiet affection from the man. The story is told by Dr. Dennis Scott - Honey's boss - which is one of the techniques I love about Nevil Shute books.
Although this wasn't a thriller or action novel by any stretch of the imagination - I found myself holding my breath during important meetings, and at key moments. I stayed up way later than intended to get it finished.
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LibraryThing member reading_fox
slightly dated now - but a very enjoyable and gripping read, set in post war britain this details a moment in the lives of some of the aeronautics engineers and the conflict between basic research and applied science. The impact on everyday life is well written, and the concepts as applicable now
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as they were then. Show Less
LibraryThing member JenneB
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
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
Show More
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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LibraryThing member abbottthomas
A somewhat predictable story of the 'little man' at odds with the establishment told with polish. Rather more interesting than the central business of metal fatigue was the extraordinary difference in child care, clearly considered normal, sixty years ago. The 12 year old child of the hero is left
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by her (widowed) father with the most casual of care arrangements and having sustained concussion and hypothermia after falling downstairs while alone at night is packed off to the care of the narrator by the family GP with instructions to rest in bed for a week. No social workers then! Show Less
LibraryThing member nkmunn
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 nevil shute's trustee from the toolroom which had a tighter structure and more enjoyable characters, but some characters and scenes of Highway will likely
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stick with me for a long while! Show Less
LibraryThing member readinggeek451
A riveting novel, first published in 1948, about aircraft design and testing and the investigation of an air crash. This may sound like dry stuff, but Shute's writing sucks one in from the very first page. The characters are very real and human (although the attitudes toward women are of course
Highly recommended to anyone who won't be put off by the period attitudes toward women.
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very dated--referring to young women as 'girls' and taking it as a given that married women quit their jobs and stay home).Highly recommended to anyone who won't be put off by the period attitudes toward women.
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LibraryThing member sonofcarc
A book of great interest in may ways:
One of several of Shute's books which reveal this hardheaded engineer as remarkably credulous about the supernatural.
It is barely credible that one attractive woman would fall in love with the hero, as he is described; two is a bit much. (The movie version (No
The book was written before the DeHaviland Comet, the first jet airliner, started falling out of the sky, An eerie case of life imitating art.
Finally, it seems to me that the subject of this book is not aviation, but the behavior of bureaucratic institutions, and the real hero is not Dr. Honey, but his boss, Dr. Scott, who risks his career to support a theory that he frankly admits he doesn't understand. One of Shute's specialties was the hero who has no idea he is being heroic; Scott is a prime example.
One of several of Shute's books which reveal this hardheaded engineer as remarkably credulous about the supernatural.
It is barely credible that one attractive woman would fall in love with the hero, as he is described; two is a bit much. (The movie version (No
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Highway in the Sky) fixed this by casting Jimmy Stewart in the part. I haven't seen it.)The book was written before the DeHaviland Comet, the first jet airliner, started falling out of the sky, An eerie case of life imitating art.
Finally, it seems to me that the subject of this book is not aviation, but the behavior of bureaucratic institutions, and the real hero is not Dr. Honey, but his boss, Dr. Scott, who risks his career to support a theory that he frankly admits he doesn't understand. One of Shute's specialties was the hero who has no idea he is being heroic; Scott is a prime example.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
An amazingly prescient book that actually predicted that we would discover something called "metal fatigue" (something that does happen to aircraft hulls). The genius in the story is a bit of a stereotypical nerd type...
LibraryThing member Ken-Me-Old-Mate
An interesting little story about an aircraft designer who is convinced that a particular plane will crash on a particular date and his journey to stop that from happening.
Another British novel that has undertones of class and expectations. A good read.
Another British novel that has undertones of class and expectations. A good read.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
That's good - in a very Shute style. The investigation of technical matters relating to airplane safety - in this case, metal fatigue (very little understood at the time) leading to the tail of a particular type of aircraft literally falling off in the air - is the basis of the story; not a subject
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I know anything about, but I understood the matter probably as well as the narrator did (he says, multiple times, that he's not able to truly understand it but he trusts the researcher who does). Then the scientific facts (well, theories, at that point) run into personalities and politics and finances and on and on, and things get complicated. It's an odd story from several angles - there's at least two protagonists on the airplane side, and two more on the romance side (oh yeah, there's a romance. Or two, or one and a half...). And it's possibly the best depiction I've seen of the way work doesn't wait until you're done with one thing to present you with another! Fun story, well-written (of course), worth reading and likely worth rereading in a couple years. Show Less
LibraryThing member bcrowl399
The suspense was just right. There were a few areas which were kind of ponderous, but I never got lost. A great story.
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
A lot of technical stuff about airplanes mixed with lots of human interest. Shute often writes about airplanes, and it's good knowing that he really knows about them.
BTW, Feminists should probably give this one a miss. In 1948 it seemed to make sense that a brilliant scientist needed a woman to
BTW, Feminists should probably give this one a miss. In 1948 it seemed to make sense that a brilliant scientist needed a woman to
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keep his house clean and bring up his daughter properly. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1948
Physical description
211 p.; 17.8 cm
Local notes
Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget viser en lille pige i forgrunden og i baggrunden et velklædt par, der kysser hinanden
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Lommeromanen, bind R 64
Oversat fra engelsk "No Highway" af Henning Kehler
Dette eksemplar har indskriften "Irma Nielsen, 14/6 60" på titelbladet
Tutbog
Omslaget viser en lille pige i forgrunden og i baggrunden et velklædt par, der kysser hinanden
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Lommeromanen, bind R 64
Oversat fra engelsk "No Highway" af Henning Kehler
Dette eksemplar har indskriften "Irma Nielsen, 14/6 60" på titelbladet
Tutbog
Other editions
No highway by Nevil Shute (Paperback)
Similar in this library
Pages
211
DDC/MDS
| 823.912 |