I was hooked by the opening paragraphs, and for two beautiful chapters, I loved No Highway for its portrayal of the workings of a research institution as it discovers and combats a captivating problem without any human antagonist or melodrama.
Then... the wheels come off in chapters 3 and 4**, as we follow Mr. Honey instead of Dr. Scott (Janet! Brad! Rocky!). Oh, chapter 3 starts off promisingly and chapter 4 ends well, but in between we're treated to some of the worst-written scenes of internal drama -- the aging actress wondering if she's wasted her life being rich and famous instead of being a wife, the young stewardess thinking about how she'd be great with kids if and when she decides to leave the airline, the captain thinking about how his buddy would never have crashed a plane -- maybe it wasn't as cliche in 1948, but it's aged very badly.
The rest of the novel follows this general pattern, in that the parts where we follow Scott are generally quite readable and the parts where we follow Honey are filled with tripe -- it would have been best to stick to Scott's POV entirely, I think. I think there's a great story in here that could be well adapted to film, but given that the 1951 movie starts Jimmy Stewart as Honey... I'm frankly a little terrified to watch it. Maybe a young Winifred Banks will be the deciding factor in favor of watching it, but for now, netflix appears to not have it.
** perhaps it would be more appropriate to say... the wheels are pulled up?
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