Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly

by David Niven

They met during the London blitz. Pandora was a small-part actress in a hit musical; Stani, half Polish and half American, found himself alone in England - his father back with his troops in Poland, his mother trapped in France by Hitler's advance.

Love affairs in those days were feverish. Pandora said war is an aphrodisiac and certainly they did not allow bombs to distract them nor even such major complications as Stani - now in the RAF - being seriously wounded while on Catafighter service, or Pandora (who proves to be an Earl's daughter) having to go on an ENSA tour to Burma.

By the time the war is over, Pandora, always professionally ambitious, has got herself a Hollywood film contract, to learn that a theatre of war is not the only place where in-fighting can be tough.

After the huge success of his autobiographical The Moon's a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses, David Niven now turns to fiction. In Pandora and Stani he has created a wonderfully attractive, totally credible pair of young lovers. Their story moves to many parts of the world - Germany, Poland, Mexico, Greece and the Spice Islands besides England and the United States and David Niven views their startling adventures with the same infectious charm and effortless light touch which made his two previous books immediate and lasting international best-sellers.

Genres: Fiction

445 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This is David^^Niven.

James David Graham Niven, known as David Niven, was an Oscar winning English actor and novelist. Niven wrote four books. The first, Round the Rugged Rocks, was a novel which appeared in 1951 and was forgotten almost at once. In 1971, he published his autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, which was well-received, selling over five million copies. He followed this with Bring On the Empty Horses in 1975, a collection of highly entertaining reminiscences from Hollywood's "Golden Age" in the 1940s. It now appears that Niven recounted many incidents from a first person perspective which actually happened to other people, and which he borrowed and embroidered. In 1981, Niven published a second and much more successful novel, Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly, which was set during and after World War II, and drew on his experiences during the war and in Hollywood. He was working on a third novel when his health failed in 1983.

Aming his many movies he appeared in A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), and Enchantment (1948), all of which received critical acclaim. Niven later appeared in The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Toast of New Orleans (1950), Happy Go Lovely (1951), Happy Ever After (1954) and Carrington V.C. (1955) before scoring a big success as Phileas Fogg in Michael Todd's production of Around the World in 80 Days (1956). He won the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Major Pollock in Separate Tables, his only nomination for an Oscar. Niven appeared in nearly a hundred films, and many shows for television.With an Academy Award to his credit, Niven's career continued to thrive. In 1959, he became the host of his own TV drama series, The David Niven Show, which ran for 13 episodes that summer. He subsequently appeared in another 30 films, including The Guns of Navarone (1961) The Pink Panther (1963), Murder by Death (1976), Death on the Nile (1978), and The Sea Wolves (1980). He died at his home from ALS ( "Lou Gehrig's disease" in the US and motor neuron disease (MND) in the UK) on 29 July 1983 at age 73

Reviews

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved David Niven's Hollywood memoir,Bring on the Empty Horses.It is a scintillating book,absolutely delightful.After that,I picked up his autobiography,The Moon's a Balloon.

It is also fairly entertaining,but includes the hardships he encountered during his life.So,at times,it gets fairly serious,especially about his time fighting in World War II and his early struggles as a movie extra,before making it big in Hollywood.

I was,therefore,keen to read more books by him.Go Slowly,Come Back Quickly is his only work of fiction.

But it isn't as good as his non fiction books.Niven seems to have used material from his own life for this novel,it felt very similar to his autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon.

But if the reader is not familiar with his autobiography,then this book will entertain.

[Alexw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much more interesting when Niven is describes his actual RAF fighting in World War 2. Degenerates when he goes to Hollywood with the beautiful Pandora. He writes beautiful so many times in front of her name, I thought that was her name. Pandora becomes star struck to be an actress which lead to drugs, sex and self loathing. FYI-Niven's first wife was an actress whose name closely looks like Pandora(Primula)
For some one who became rich and famous due to Hollywood, Niven description of that life style show his revulsion for Hollywood and wonders why he stayed for so long in movies.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I randomly picked up this book at a hostel in Poland for a better part of reasoning that it being the only book in English. It isn't the first book I'd pick up but I'm really glad I did because I ended up really loving this book (and to think it was written nearly 40 years ago!)

I really loved how cleverly written this book was and how there was such imaginative attention to tangential plots and details concerning WWII. I also liked that it wasn't such an emotional romantic crap and that there wasn't so much sensationalism about that. The reader gets a sense of two worlds: The Europe caught up int he war and Hollywood at its Zenith and chaos. This novel really helped me envision what life was like back then, especially its ups and downs.

he ending was a bit.... odd and I think unnecessary but I will say that I really felt connected to the characters and *spoiler alerts* cried when Stani sees Pandora in the window. I was so torn up that I had to put the book down for half a day because I was just so pissed and hurt. Nevertheless, that's the kind of effect one always wants from a book. I can hardly illustrate that I liked it as much as I did but the best part was the writing style. I look forward to reading more of Niven's books.

[E.H. Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It isn’t necessary to read David Niven’s two memoirs before reading his novels, but since you’ve probably only chanced upon them because you like him as an actor, you’ve probably already read his autobiographies. As he’s one of my all-time favorite actors, I watch and read everything about him I can get my hands on. It’s a Christmas tradition of mine to read one of his four books in December; there’s no happier setting than sitting by the fire in a cozy chair reading David Niven’s delightful words.

In his second novel, he writes of a very attractive, athletic young man with a healthy sex drive who falls in love with a very experienced young woman. The man joins the air force in WWII before following his girlfriend’s dreams in Hollywood. If that plot sounds familiar, it’s probably because he drew from his own experiences and you’ve read a similar story in his memoirs. However, Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly is an entirely different book than The Moon’s a Balloon. Like many great artists, Niven brought his personal experiences to the table and embellished them into a creative, beautiful fiction. He writes with enormous attention to detail, bringing each scene to life.

“During the night, three or four ships passed quite close. No lights were showing, of course, but he could hear the hum of their engines and the steady beat of their propellers. He yelled till he thought his lungs would burst and beat impotent hands on the sides of the rubber boat but their heartening sounds slowly faded away and as dawn slowly changed the black of night to ghostly gray, there was not a hull, a funnel or a mast in sight. He realized that although he had fallen ahead of the convoy, they had passed him in the darkness. He cried then, like a child.
By midmorning, he was so thirsty and his foot and leg throbbed so unbearably, the salt on his face was such a torture, that he didn’t think he could hang on. The wind was still strong and he was soaked with spray. He bailed again, as he was sitting in water and blood; even the skin of his good leg was turning white and puckered. His hands looked greenish.”

The lead is an extremely likable hero, and it’s not often a young man is written to have such a big heart and sensitive feelings. It’s easy to imagine The Niv modeled his lead after himself, and once you have his image in your head, you’ll be compelled to root for all his endeavors. It doesn’t matter if you don’t really like the girl that much, since he loves her so completely, you’ll want them to work out. I won’t give spoilers, but if you know about certain events in his life, you’ll completely understand the love he gave to his novel. More than once, I got a lump in my throat because I made the connection between fiction and reality.

As I always do with his books, I highly recommend you purchase a copy of this novel. It’s delightful to read, and can be enjoyed just as much the second, third, fourth time you read it.

http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/go-slo...

[Magnús Friðriksson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This particular book has been collecting dust for more than three and a half-decade. Thankfully it's only been sitting idle in my shelves for four of all those years. Since I decided that 2020 was going to be the year I'd reduce the number of unread books on my shelves, this one became the 5th in that project and I'm almost regretful that I haven't read it long before. It is a delight!

The story spans over six, seven years and takes us on a remarkable journey along with a High School senior flung in the cauldron of WWII, falls in love with a beautiful actress, gets shot down by a dying 'Condor' and adrift on a life raft for days. That's just the first couple of years.

I'm not going to spoil the story for those of you that will by chance pick up this book. But David Niven takes us on a journey through every human emotion, even having me laughing out loud while reading... and once I had to put the book aside so I could finish laughing 'like a hyena' and catch my breath.

Picking up this book, with no particular expectations one way or the other, I finished this book with a smile on my face... no, make that a broad grin.

Highly recommended.

[Salli · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great to see that David Niven is writing about what he knows and I suspect much of what he writes about is from experience. I like the fact that he is honest about the lead males "cowardice". I do find the story rather episodic, each story ends and a new one starts really rather like a biography perhaps? The idea joining then appears to just be life moving on. Again another novel written by someone who will have been influenced by the Victorian way of writing novels, rather too much description and detail for a modern audience. I found myself skip reading, partly because I was under time pressure but partly because I ran out of patience with the text.

[Colin Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

After his two works of non-fiction David Niven then released this little gem.

It is an absolute must read for anyone interested in writing romantic novels. David takes his extensive inside knowledge of Hollywood and weaves it expertly into the story line and what he wrote all those years ago about the behaviour of some people in the movie business has recently played out in real life with the Times Up campaign.

I really enjoyed it and strongly recommend it

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still like David Niven, but found this to be a little more uneven than his nonfiction. It took a while for me to get into it, but there are some good LOLs in the middle, and it ends with a strange episode. As expected, the most successful parts dealt with Hollywood and acting.

[Sophie Zanoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this like a million times....

[Lesley Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous novel by a wonderful raconteur.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing, & sometimes painful novel, from a celebrated film star from the 1950-1980 era who had his own, intense military experiences in the Second World War is quite a revelation about both war against Nazism, & Hollywood in its 'Golden Era'.
David Niven wrote two highly-entertaining memoirs about his real-life experiences in the cinema universe back in the 1970s. This story, however, relates the life of an exiled Pole, Stani, who leaves the USA to play his part in the conflict which started in his home country & dragged in his mother's eventually.
Stani suffers terrible wounds in his first encounter with a German bomber over the Atlantic & after a long recovery from his intolerable ordeal, falls in love with the beautiful Pandora, an English aristocrat's daughter, who ends up as a rising film star in Hollywood in the post-war period. In a nutshell, the second half of the book dissects & fillets the whole industry in its corrupt, sordid & shameless hunt for dollars - forget the cents!
I enjoyed the narrative, even if, in places it sounds corny & derivative of other writers of the time. But overall...in 384 pages...it did the job of helping me on sleepless nights.

[A.K. Johns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly - David Niven (1981) -

Although this book had points where it bore similarities to Mr Niven’s life, as explored in his own biographical works ‘The Moons A Balloon’ (1971) and ‘Bring On The Empty Horses’ (1975), it didn’t have quite the same excitement and flair as those works. Yes he still name dropped everyone he’d ever met, but the fun of it being real stories was lost and the Hollywood chapters were not exactly outrageous or hard to believe, but rather everyday.

The story wasn’t boring, but it didn’t have a lot of oomph either.
You could tell that it was David’s voice and his wit was present, but sometimes it got quite dark and the comedy element was lost, almost as if his mood had changed whilst writing different chapters or the passages written to fill the story out were done during a period of depression so that they contrasted with his first draft. Certainly the last chapters were positively brutal and an epilogue would have been quite good to wrap things up after those events.
It also felt a bit like reading a collection of stories that had been cobbled together, rather than one purpose built piece. A short story collection where all the names had been made the same to fall in line and stretch them in to one whole.
There was a tendency for things to jump around a bit or skip entirely too.

Actually, as short stories, they might have featured well in a magazine or newspaper, but as one long peace, it was a bit dragged out. It might make an interesting 6 part TV series with a bit of work.

The romance was not very complicated and the wavering issue that usually comes with such, was just a simple trope that is overused in literature. A misunderstanding of an affair.

I also thought that some of the deaths in the story were dealt with in quite a callous, matter of fact way and that I didn��t really get to feel the emotion of the situation/s enough. In a way it seemed like they had to be killed, because they served no more purpose, but David didn’t really want to write about them.

Some of the other characters were actually far more interesting than Pandora and Stani. I would have liked Mrs Quansett-Fowles to have had her own spin off for a instance - ‘Confessions From A Drawing Room’ or something.

With the chapters being so long, it was hard to find a place to pause and it didn’t always flow well, but it’s not overly bad and it’s easy enough to read, although it was a little bit slangy at times. However it won’t be returning to my shelves to join his other works.

5.55/10.

[Angela Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story takes twists and turns but whatever the circumstances D. Niven knows what he is talking about. Stani and Pandora have a destiny, they are parted when he goes to war but that is just the beginning, when Hollywood calls their lives are altered, Stani takes his hobby of photographer more seriously to be there for his love.

[Rupert Grech · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost 4 stars from me. The book is full of Hollywood clichés and stereotypes but the clever writing style, wit and humour saves it. I could envisage much of it as a movie scene, which is not surprising given the identity of the author. I enjoyed the insights into WWII in the first half if the book. I thought that the ending was unsatisfying and the final dramatic plot action unnecessary.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but DN should have stuck to the autobiographies as it is nowhere near as good as his other two.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love story of a RAF pilot and an actress.

[bookhooker · Rating 2 out of 5]

eh!

[Sam Kigelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books I've read in my life that I've felt like reading again! This guy seems to understand life better than me or anyone I know.......... War, love, lust, you name it! 6/5 stars!

[Jane Elliston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writes a good yarn

[Jo Jenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and it had the real feel of a Harold Robbins book but it was too short.
The end didn’t feel like the end and I would have preferred a proper ending.