Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute (London, January 17, 1899 – Melbourne, January 12, 1960) (full name Nevil Shute Norway) was one of the most popular novelists of the mid-20th century. His stories and characters have a genuine sweetness to them, which occasionally becomes cloying, but which helps explain why a half-century after his death, virtually all his books remain in print.

Round the Bend

Nevil Shute believed Round the Bend to be his best novel. It concerns a Western-educated Malayan aircraft mechanic, who develops a religious belief about the moral imperative of performing good maintenance on the machines upon which others' lives depend. He talks with other mechanics and unintentionally becomes the leader of a religious movement. His employers are inconvenienced by crowds of pilgrims coming to camp on their airfields, but appreciate the religion for making its disciples such dedicated and reliable workers. To a modern reader, Round the Bend brings to mind Robert Pirsig's 1974 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in which some similar themes are refracted through very different lenses. (Interestingly, both books were originally published by the same publisher).

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