Share for friends:

Read So Disdained (2002)

So Disdained (2002)

Online Book

Author
Genre
Rating
3.57 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
184232294X (ISBN13: 9781842322949)
Language
English
Publisher
house of stratus

So Disdained (2002) - Plot & Excerpts

Peter Moran is driving home one evening in the rain when he comes upon a man walking along the road. He offers him a ride and recognizes him immediately as a fellow pilot from his regiment during WWI. He asks if he's Maurice Landen and the man denies it, giving another name. Peter pushes it because he's sure and finally Maurice acknowledges it is indeed him. Peter takes him home with him that night and Maurice begins to share what's he's been doing since the war. The final bit of the tale is that he's been living and working in Russia and is currently in England because he was flying a night mission for the Russians taking photos of something going on in Portsmouth. Maurice wants to return to Russia to deliver the plates of photos. Peter is divided in his loyalties: protect his country or protect his friend. I'd read a number of Nevil Shute books over the years but had never read this one. They're getting very hard to find and I found this one in a second hand store. I really enjoyed it. The story line moves along quickly and draws you in. There are several side stories which all fit together and add to the drama and suspense. Reading this makes me want to try to locate some of his other books and find out what I've been missing out on all these years.

One of Shute's earliest books, written before he had really settled in to his style. It has the fussiness that one expects from him, without the saving grace of a rattling good story. He fails to bring out the relationships between his characters in a clear manner -- e.g. his relationship with Shiela doesn't seem real and it's never made clear why he decided not to blow the whistle on Lenden at the start. Several incidents test the reader's willingness to suspend disbelief, showing Shute's lack of experience: the ease with which he is able to hide the airplane; the convenient presence, on a country estate, of a skilled airplane mechanic just when he needs one; the sudden unexplained appearance of Stenning to save the situation at the end; the willingness of the Fascisti to help him when it was not in their economic interest to do so.All in all, a book that would appleal only to dedicated fans of Nevil Shute.Note: Like several of Shute's books, this one was published elsewhere under a different title "The Mysterious Aviator"

What do You think about So Disdained (2002)?

Sometimes it's interesting to check in on a once-populat, now mostly forgotten author, and put yourself in a different time. This is the mid 1920s, Britain is trying to find its way back to normal after what's simply known then as The War, and the Soviet Union is beginning to be seen as a threat. Stalin would recently have come to power, though his name isn't mentioned by Shute-- in 1928, it wouldn't really have had much significance.This is a tightly written story, reminiscent of early Grahame Greene, although Greene had actually not begun his career in 1928, so maybe the influence was the other way around.
—Tad Richards

I rather liked this book. It's the second by Shute that I've read, and I'll likely read more of him. It involves a young man who had been a pilot during WWI. During the subsequent ten years he had become an estate manager for a rich guy. He does it well and is more-or-less a member of the family. Driving home one night in the driving rain, he comes across someone walking along the road. He stops to offer they guy a ride and discovers he is an old mate from the air corps. His mate, however, has stayed with flying, the only thing he ever liked or could do competently. He was flying a spy mission for the Russians (this was before the rise of the Nazi's, so the "Reds" were a worry) and crashed his plane. So, we spend the rest of the book trying to save the pilot's bacon, so to speak, while making sure the "intelligence" that he had gathered didn't get back to the man's employers. It's a somewhat complex plot, but a rather interesting story, during a rather interesting period of time.
—Larry Piper

Nevil Shute was a good (if somewhat overlooked now) author best known for A Town Like Alice & On the Beach. So Disdained dates from earlier in his career and it shows to some extent in the slightly weaker characterisation and slightly predictable plot. However his basic ability remains and I was quickly sucked into the story. The central plot preempts the 1950 & onwards trend for cold war fiction - it is essentially a story of bad bolshevik Russians and a lost but honorable Englishman. The book rolls along nicely but it should be said that, to contemporary eyes, the latter part of the book's & its introduction of heroic Italian fascists, sits uncomfortably. That said, this was written shortly after the 1926 general strike and I think the middle classes in particular were worried by "Bolsheviks" and also it is argued as part of the plot development - in the narrators eyes the fascists were the natural antagonists of the Bolsheviks.... Interesting as a period piece and works as a quick & easy read if you can cope with the handsome fascist captain and his men!
—Johanne

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Read books by author Nevil Shute

Read books in category Fiction