Rating: 
Summary: Doing good work can be spiritually fulfilling
Review: "Round the Bend" is an adventure book that will take you with the protagonist through the pioneering atmosphere of early aviation, from the daredevil "barnstorming" era through early commercial aviation. In this book, Nevil Shute has a lot to say about the importance of finding your calling and doing good work. Besides eating, drinking, sleeping, and relating to loved ones, work is a fundamental dimension of human life, well captured by Shute in his portrayal of people's motivations, the conventional wisdom, and an encounter with a not-so-conventional attitude toward work in general that has promising implications for story characters and readers alike.I first read this book at university, in a political theory course that read twentieth-century novels (as well as important essays) as a springboard for discussion of the best way to live in society (the ancient problem of reconciling the One and the Many). This book gives an intriguing vision of how impersonal society at work becomes a dedicated community through devotion to good work. Just as importantly, such devotion is individually enriching: airplane maintenance, and all good work in general is, at a deeper level, soul work. A truly marvellous, inspirational story.
Rating:
Summary: A place for the spirit in a modern world
Review: A fantastic example of how apparent contradictions can become the most desired compliments to each other. How can there be room for selfless spiritualism in the midst of so much fast-paced technology? How can eastern ideals coexist with western ways? And how can a man serve his god while serving himself? These are the things that are explored in this amazing tale of tolerance, written in a way that will have you impatient to read the next page every moment you're away from it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Story Told Straight
Review: A very interesting and different book. It reads very much as a man telling a story about a chapter in his life. Very straight forward and readable. No long descriptions of scenery, or extensive dialog. This is a tale of two men. One is in love with airplanes and starts his own service, after WWII, in the Middle East. He is the primary character and the story teller. The other, a boyhood acquaintaince and later an employee, increasing becomes involved with religion and philosophy. It is a captivating tale but not one of action or suspense. Based on my experience with this book, I have acquired two more of Shute's work.
Rating:
Summary: A Story Told Straight
Review: A very interesting and different book. It reads very much as a man telling a story about a chapter in his life. Very straight forward and readable. No long descriptions of scenery, or extensive dialog. This is a tale of two men. One is in love with airplanes and starts his own service, after WWII, in the Middle East. He is the primary character and the story teller. The other, a boyhood acquaintaince and later an employee, increasing becomes involved with religion and philosophy. It is a captivating tale but not one of action or suspense. Based on my experience with this book, I have acquired two more of Shute's work.
Rating:
Summary: Zen and the art of aircraft maintenance
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Zen and the art of aircraft maintenance
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Zen and the art of aircraft maintenance
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Shute's best
Review: Round the Bend is Shute's masterpiece. A cross between The Right Stuff and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it has a powerful universe of its own, like Dune's, which is hard to forget
Rating:
Summary: A book for all times
Review: This is the story of an Englishman,Tom Cutter, who runs an airplane charter service from Arabia to the Far East and
his best friend,the Russian-American Connie Shaklin, who persuades men of all religions that doing their job honestly
and responsibly is the best way to serve God, any God.One
of the best examples of Shutes' simple,compelling style, it
is also an indicator of the change in his attitude from the xenophobic Englishman of his early novels to a citizen of the
world. For anyone despairing of combining religious belief
with the modern work world, this book provides an excellent solution without preaching to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: The romance of aviation coupled with a universal religious e
Review: 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.
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