If ["On the Beach"] … is ever televised, there may be a wilder stampede than Orson Welles wrought two decades ago with his Martians. The time is 1963, a final war has been fought, some 4,000 cobalt bombs have been dropped, and the end of humanity has come in all but the extremities of the Southern Hemisphere. In Australia, the residents of Melbourne know that winds are inexorably bringing radiation sickness and death in a few months. At the last moment the Government will issue suicide pills.

Cars and planes lie about unused—no gasoline. An old man in his club drinks more port than before—too much of it. A young woman who once dreamed of seeing Paris and of having children now resigns herself to as many brandies as she can put away. (p. 4)

The humdrumness of the characters is no doubt intentional, since it makes their story more...