Ruined City

Unemployment is very high, and few shops remain open, the entire town living on the dole.

Ruined city - Picture of Ruined Temple/Church of Dhanushkodi, Rameswaram

The hospital is still open, however, and Warren is operated on successfully. While recovering he learns of the town's plight, as he starts becoming attracted to the Hospital's Almoner , Alice MacMahon - a law graduate who never practised but who is fiercely loyal to her town. He continues the pose of being indigent, and watches as others die through listlessness and lack of strength. Eventually his convalescence is complete and he is discharged. By this time, he has managed to have money and cheque forms sent to him, and he gives a major gift to the hospital, keeping it quiet.

Warren now wants to help the town, both out of affection for Alice and out of belief that something must be done - and as head of his firm he is uniquely able to do so.

Ruined City

He quietly buys the shipyard for a song with his own money, but knows of no legitimate way of securing that first order to start the shipyard going again. He sees no other way but to indulge in shady dealings before this, his name was a byword for honesty. Warren goes to the Balkan nation of Laevatia and begins bribing officials for control of the oil concession—once the concession is secured, the corporation which will result will need tankers to transport the oil.

Thanks to the help of a courtesan , a dishonest card dealer, and other colourful characters, he is successful. The new corporation which Warren floats on the London stock market orders the tankers from the shipyard, which Warren also floats on the stock market. To make the float a success he states in its prospectus that the yard will make a profit, although he knows full well, and a letter he has received from the yard's manager reports, that the opposite will be true.

This falsification of a prospectus was and is a serious criminal offence—as Warren well knows. The shipyard slowly starts up again, and thus far Warren's plan works well. But when there is a revolution in Laevatia, the house of cards that Warren has built starts to collapse. Questions are asked around the Exchange, the damning letter comes to light, and Warren is arrested.

The only way to keep the shipyard out of it is for Warren to take the responsibility entirely on himself. He does, and is sent to prison, where he serves two years and three months. He is completely unrepentant. Meanwhile, his love for Alice only awaits his release before they can be married. As a prisoner, without responsibility, he begins to recover his health and gain perspective on his life.

As his good name in the City is ruined, and as he can never return to his former work, he thinks about what to do with the remainder of his life what he decides is not made clear. He will still be a wealthy man, and still has energy. Upon his release, he travels up to Sharples, telling no one of his coming. There is no resemblance between the bustling, prosperous town he now sees, and the derelict one he remembers. Did ye ever hear that? Shute is quite vicious in his portrayal of an imaginary Balkan state where every official is corrupted and greedy and uneducated.

My view of corruption, coming from a native of the Balkans, would make the giver just as guilty as the asker in the matter of bribes in the race to obtain unfair advantages in contracts. In Nevile Shute's defense, he probably had some direct experience of the difficulties in starting a new business venture.

His biography says something about a couple of his companies that failed. I will close my review with the observation that this book is of painful actuality to us in We are just coming out of a severe economic depression, unemployment is at record levels in Europe and elsewhere, 'banker' has become a dirty word and the right to work, to a decent salary and a decent life has become an unattainable dream for far too many people.

Oct 29, Tom Mathews rated it liked it Shelves: This is my first Nevil Shute book other than On the Beach and an intriguing book it is. It's a rare book that succeeds in telling its story without resorting to violence on one side or an overabundance of sentimentality on the other. Ruined City manages to do just that with this story of sacrifice and redemption set in during the worst years of the Great Depression. Henry Warren is a successful and well regarded London banker who heads up to the north of England for a walkabout when his marriage This is my first Nevil Shute book other than On the Beach and an intriguing book it is.

Henry Warren is a successful and well regarded London banker who heads up to the north of England for a walkabout when his marriage falls apart. Felled by acute peritonitis during his rambles, he wakes up in hospital in a Northumberland town that has been severely hit by the depression. Mistaken for an itinerant laborer, Warren sees life from a new perspective and vows to do what he can to help. But turning around the economy of a town that is already circling the drain is no easy task, as well he knows, and Warren put his financial expertise to work on a risky plan that, if it fails, could ruin not only the town of Sharples, but Warren himself.

The plot threatens to get a bit thick at times when Shute takes his readers into the world of international trade and finance but it redeems itself with its well-developed characters. On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements: Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.

A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending. Aug 24, Lucy rated it it was amazing Shelves: They're revised from time to time, aren't they? You don't just have to starve? The rates are all right--in theory, Mr. You can keep alive and fit on P. There's really nothing wrong with the rates of relief. If you are careful, and wise, and prud Warren frowned. If you are careful, and wise, and prudent, you can live on that amount of money fairly well.

And you've got to be intelligent, and well educated, too, and rather selfish. If you were like that you'd get along all right--but you wouldn't have a penny to spare. If you got bored stiff with doing nothing so that you went and blued fourpence on going to the pictures--you just wouldn't have enough to eat that week. Or if you couldn't cook very well, and spoiled the food a bit, you'd go hungry.

You'd go hungry if your wife had a birthday and you wanted to give her a little present costing a bob--you'd only get eighty percent of your food that week. And of course, if your wife gets ill and you want to buy her little fancy bits of things And it seemed to me then, as it does now, that there's only one thing really worth working for in the City.

That's a very old story, of course. The man who's put to work the machine isn't any better off than he was before; the three men that are thrown out of a job are very much worse off The cure is for somebody to buckle to and make a job for the three men. There's no dignity, no decency, or health today for men that haven't got a job.

Mar 15, Natalie rated it really liked it Shelves: Wow, a book for our time too! Nevil Shute 's story is about whether companies should put workers first or investors first. This is a timeless story about an effort to put the people of a city back to work in manufacturing when the economy of the place has all but dried up and social assistance and debt are the only things keeping the place and its people alive at all. The protagonist,a banker and financier, realizes that "There's only only one thing really worth working for in the City.

That's to Wow, a book for our time too! All other things depend on work today; without work men are utterly undone". The protagonist admits that though his intentions are good his methods if they are to succeed can not be because of the tension between serving investors and creating work where industry has failed once before. Nov 21, Peter rated it really liked it.

When is it right to do wrong?

Can a crime be justified if the results help others and not oneself? It's the Robin Hood question and Shute sets his own morality play in the depression of the s to pose the question What is the greater good, to play by the rules or to bend them to help those who can't help themselves? Financier Henry Warren unexpectedly confronts life in the industrial desert of Northern England and comes up with his own maverick solution to the woes of a jobless ship-buildi When is it right to do wrong? Financier Henry Warren unexpectedly confronts life in the industrial desert of Northern England and comes up with his own maverick solution to the woes of a jobless ship-building town.

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3. Three Steps to Success.
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The voice of this novel might jar a little in the PC Britain of the 21st century, but the economic setting and the moral dilemma are surprisingly current. Jul 30, Gerald rated it really liked it Shelves: Nevil Shute is one of my favorite authors. Ruined City began a little slow but picked up quickly. A fairly young and very successful, workaholic financier Henry Warren realizes that his failing marriage is about to come to an end. The latter issue disturbs him very little, but he grows very concerned about his poor physical condition which is the result of his having driven himself extremely hard to reach the level of success that he has.

He knows that he gets very little exercise and vows to ma Nevil Shute is one of my favorite authors. He knows that he gets very little exercise and vows to make radical changes in his lifestyle. He has his chauffeur drive him from his London home about miles north and drop him off for an undetermined period of time near the vicinity of Newcastle near the northeast coast, not far from the border with Scotland.

It is from there that he begins his new routine of walking 20 miles per day. Following a week or so of this, when he is beginning to feel like a changed man, he experiences a severe intestinal attack. He is taken to a local hospital in the small town of Sharples in a delirious condition. He must have an immediate operation to relieve the obstruction. Unshaven for the week he has been walking, with little money on him, and having lost his identification, he is taken for an unemployed, homeless man. When he realizes this following his successful operation, he decides not to disabuse them right away of this extremely incorrect assumption and instead welcomes the anonymity that such circumstances provide him.

During his six weeks of post-operative recovery, he learns much about the town and people of his once-prosperous town. The local shipyard has been closed for more than five years along with the rolling mills and mine. After these primary employers closed their doors, the majority of the small businesses that existed in prosperous times had no choice but to close also with the vast majority of the local workforce being unemployed.

He talks with the hospital almoner, i. She tells him of what Sharples was like prior to the widespread unemployment. As he reaching this end of his recovery period, he asks Miss McMahon if she can arrange for him look at the closed shipyard, rolling mills, and mine.

She does arrange this, although she is quite puzzled as to why he, as an unemployed clerk so she thinks , wants to do such a thing. He is finally discharged so he can continue his supposed search for employment. He promises Miss McMahon in writing to begin paying off his hospital bill as soon as he is employed again. On his way back to London he realizes that he has found his new reason to continuing working instead of retiring. He vows that he will do everything in his power to become the catalyst that will result in prosperity returning to the economically dead city of Sharples.

Nevil Shute is a wonderful storyteller and this tale is no exception. While not among my top favorites of his novels, Ruined City is quite good, and I do give it a very favorable recommendation. Aug 19, Peter rated it it was amazing Shelves: Nevil Shute wrote this on the back of his own experiences in floating and running a company. He succeeds as usual in involving the reader in a story that in lesser hands would have been dry and dull. Builds to quite an emotional ending. Shute was visionary in several of the books he wrote, accurately foretelling, or bleakly warning, of events in the near future.

It is ironic that the ship building industry in Britain at the time of this novel was about to collapse due to the superiority of weld Nevil Shute wrote this on the back of his own experiences in floating and running a company. It is ironic that the ship building industry in Britain at the time of this novel was about to collapse due to the superiority of welding over riveting.

Feb 15, Leftbanker rated it it was amazing Shelves: Like the only other novel I have read by Nevil Shute, Trustee from the Toolroom , , Ruined City , is nothing less than a modern fairy tale, and a really good one. In this happy tale Shute seems to conger the ghosts of Robin Hood and John Maynard Keynes and heavily emphasizes the importance of deficit spending in times of crisis, a lesson American Republicans forgot altogether when the President Obama was attempting to pull the U. The novel Like the only other novel I have read by Nevil Shute, Trustee from the Toolroom , , Ruined City , is nothing less than a modern fairy tale, and a really good one.

The novel celebrates the triumph of decency, something which would be corny in the hands of a less skillful storyteller. After just two of his books I have become a follower of his brand of optimism. Like A Town Like Alice , this is about reviving the fortunes of a town, though the town and the story are very different. Started off unbearably depressing and I wished I'd picked something else to take on holiday, but quickly became a feelgood read as banker Warren, faced with the very real results of the kind of decisions he's used to making at work, decides to fix the town of Barlow by bringing its shipyard, five years abandoned, back to life.

Dec 09, Karen rated it really liked it. Both of these books have universal themes and are quite relevant. Main character Henry Warren, a wealthy banker sees closeup what the Depression has done to a Northern England coastal town. A once thriving shipbuilding town is now filled with unemployed men, half-starving children, and a shipyard that is slowly disin After reading On the Beach , I thought I would try to read more of Nevil Shute, and I was very glad I picked up Ruined City which has been re-titled Kindling in a second hand shop.

A once thriving shipbuilding town is now filled with unemployed men, half-starving children, and a shipyard that is slowly disintegrating. Warren sees the potential of what this town could be again, and decides to do something about it. Oct 16, Ayesha rated it really liked it. Similar to a Town Like Alice, without the romantic intrigue. This novel also explores the effects of a poor economy on the psychology of its people. In this case it was a once booming town hit by the depression, rather than, as was the case in a Town Like Alice, a dust bowl. Both explore methodical inspiration and what one person, with means, can do for an entire town.

Well worth the read, short and insightful. A powerful tale of redemption, and how a determined man can make a difference, regardless of the costs - Mr Shute so effortlessly depicts the world of high finance and all the hijinks it entails that you can be forgiven for thinking he was born to it.. Nov 02, James rated it it was amazing. Aug 17, Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan added it. Readd it for the first time many years back.

Ruined City

Read it for the second time when my daughter did her M Phil. I used to adore Nevil Shute so was thrilled to pick up a dozen hardbacks in good nick at a local charity shop. I'd completely forgotten that I'd read this previously, which says as much about me as about the story. However, it was all a bit sad, dated and humourless which left me feeling rather disappointed even though the 'hero' was a good man who did wrong to achieve right.

Jun 21, Carl Palmateer rated it liked it. A quick little book, set in and written during the depression, its a rather standard morality play. Interesting is its reflexive rejection of socialism during the low point of capitalism. It flows well and the details are interesting but there are no real surprises or suspense in the book. Really wasn't sure what to expect when a friend lent this to me. Really a good story about someone doing good. Jul 22, Derek Collett rated it really liked it. Henry Warren is a City banker in his late thirties who is living a high-pressure lifestyle: After beginning divorce proceedings against his two-timing wife, Warren experiences something of an epiphany: He gets his chauffeur to drive him into the hills near Carlisle Henry Warren is a City banker in his late thirties who is living a high-pressure lifestyle: He gets his chauffeur to drive him into the hills near Carlisle and then sets off on foot.

But after a few days of walking he collapses with agonizing stomach pains and has to be taken to a hospital in Northumberland for an operation. The town has suffered badly during the Depression: Warren determines to use his professional expertise to bring prosperity back to Sharples in order to repay the town for having taken care of him in his hour of greatest need. He begins by purchasing the disused, rusting shipyard for a song and sets about trying to find some ships for it to build.

In essence, Warren had said that his company would make a profit for its shareholders in its early years, even though he knew it was far more likely to make a loss. The novel ends with Warren, now a free man again, returning to Sharples, being greeted as a hero and with the strong likelihood that Miss MacMahon will consent to marry him.

I read the first 40 pages or so of this novel in one sitting during a train journey and was utterly captivated. As is often the case with Shute, there are echoes in this work of that of his contemporary Nigel Balchin. Once Warren has recovered from his operation, the novel shears off into very different territory. It becomes a story about the business world, specifically high finance, and the theme of the early pages is subsumed beneath this new plot thread.

Also, the romantic theme is pretty feeble in all honesty. Ruined City is consistently and compulsively readable though and constitutes one of the best Shute novels I have encountered thus far. Another gem by Nevil Shute. This time, we're dealing with an investment banker, Henry Warren. He's rather a workaholic, and his lively, entitled spouse is carrying on an affair with a "black man", which in this instance is an Arabian prince, or perhaps a Pakastani one.

At any rate, not a "black man" by modern reckoning, by which we mean someone whose origins trace to sub-Sahara Africa Yup, the Brits were pretty racist 75 or so years ago. When, on a business trip to Paris, he sees his spouse di Another gem by Nevil Shute. When, on a business trip to Paris, he sees his spouse dining with the "black man", he resolves to divorce her, unless she agrees to give up her "gay" life and retire to boredom in the country.

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She, of course, is unwilling to do that. Shortly thereafter, Warren, feeling run down and depressed, heads north for a bit of walking. He has an attack of something in his gut twisted intestine I believe and ends up in the hospital of a small city. He poses as another of their charity cases, an out-of-work itinerant clerk. The time is , and everyone is out of work. This particular town was once a thriving center of ship building. But the shipyard, local rolling mill, and mine have all shut down some five years previously.