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The Off-Islanders
This is the delightful story that became the film The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming.
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1961
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136 people want to read
About the author
Nathaniel Benchley
80 books25 followersBorn in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, he was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (1889-1945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City.
Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own peoples'.
Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.
Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.
His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."
Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.
Nathaniel Benchley was the highly-respected author of many children's/juvenile books that provided learning for the youthful readers with stories of various animals or through the book's historical settings. Benchley dealt with diverse locales and topics such as "Bright Candles", which recounts the experiences of a 16-year-old Danish boy during the German occupation of his country in World War II; and "Small Wolf", a story about a Native American boy who meets white men on the island of Manhattan and learns that their ideas about land are different from those of his own peoples'.
Film director/producer, Norman Jewison made Benchley's 1961 novel The Off-Islanders into a motion picture titled The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming for which he received the nomination for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay. He was a close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart and wrote his biography in 1975.
Benchley's novel Welcome to Xanadu was made into the 1975 motion picture Sweet Hostage.
His elder son, Peter Benchley (1940-2006), was a writer best known for writing the novel Jaws and the screenplay of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film made from it. His younger son, Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor who has portrayed his grandfather, Robert Benchley, in a one-man, semi-biographical stage show, "Benchley Despite Himself". The show was a compilation of Robert Benchley's best monologues, short films, radio rantings and pithy pieces as recalled, edited, and acted by his grandson Nat, and combined with family reminiscences and friends' perspectives."
Nathaniel Benchley died in 1981 in Boston, Massachusetts and was interred in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 28, 2017
If you enjoyed the 1966 film, you’ll want to read the humorous novel that it was based on by Nathaniel Benchley. But if you’re looking for similarities between the two, prepare to be surprised. While the book and the film start off with the same premise of a Russian submarine running aground along the coast of a fictional Cape Cod island, the plots of the film and the novel largely deviate from there. The film replaces some of the novel’s main characters -- love interests Roland Gurney and Barbara Hageman and the all-around bum Olin Leveridge -- with Walt Whittaker (played by Carl Reiner) and his family. The book also ventures more into the lives of the nine Russians who invade the island. Watch out for party loyalist Vasilov. When it comes to the film you can’t help but fall in love with Alan Arkin’s portrayal of Lt. Rozanov who really isn’t that exciting of a character in the book. The ending of Benchley’s novel is rather silly and some moments throughout just weren’t very convincing to the reader. Although the book was entertaining and I do recommend it, this is one of those rare cases where I enjoyed the film over the book.
August 7, 2020
I imagine this story started like this: The author thinks, 'In the 1960s a Russian submarine runs aground off the coast of a small American island.' Then he asks himself, 'What happens next?' This novel is the basis for the movie 'The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming,' and, except for that basic premise there is little that coincides. The movie-makers, asking themselves, 'What happens next?', came up with the goods, one of the funniest movies from the 60s. It's odd because Nathaniel Benchley seemingly did not have the same imagination as the screenwriter. The book is pleasant, a little boring, a little scattered. The movie is hilarious (and brilliantly cast). This is a rare instance of the movie being better than the book.
August 2, 2020
I forgot about this book until I saw it in someone else's update. I loooove Nathaniel Benchley! Now I need to reread it. Oh, and go find his other books because I'm pretty sure this isn't the only one I've read.
September 1, 2025
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Based on the novel by Nathaniel Benchley
There are many good, amusing moments in the comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, counterintuitively, if we consider the scare included in the title, the film has won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, Best Actor – categories for which it was nominated for the Oscars and also Best Writing.
During the period when the Americans and the Russians where confronting each other through proxy and the cold war, unlike today, when they may be shooting at each other over Syria and chemical weapons- which are all right with Putin-, a submarine is stuck near Gloucester Island in Massachusetts.
The captain seems to be the archetypical soviet apparatchik, placed there not for “what he knows, but whom he knows”, the stupid mistake of getting so close to shore and therefore risking the shipwreck of his vessel appears so silly as to be dismissed as incredible, but this sort of thing happened in communism, where many “leaders” where placed in their position because they showed an attachment to the “values „of the system and not any special skills.
In fact, if there are wrong things with this feature, one of the major flaws would be to depict the Coming Russians as so likeable, humane, decent, loveable, amusing, endearing and so many more positive traits that one would believe that these are actually Tibetans from the close entourage of the Dalai Lama that are represented here and not hardened Soviets, the forefathers of the guys who vote overwhelmingly- 80% or more!- for a dictator who invades Ukraine, kills ex-spies and whoever might near them, helps a monster like Assad and so much more without losing any sleep.
When the submarine is trapped, a team of nine men is sent to shore to get help and get the vessel into the ocean again, Lieutenant Rozanov aka Alan Arkin- winner of the Golden Globe and Oscar nominated for this performance- leading the unit and trying to get a boat to propel his comrades out of trouble.
The Russians arrive at the house of the Whittaker family, where the young son- who is probably about seven- observes the activities of seven strange men who sneak around their home, situated some distance from the other houses, and tells his father and mother who at first ignore him and then they thinks he is probably playing some game.
All until three foreigners knock at their door and ask directions, because they need a boat, for they are Norwegians- however, they say it wrong and with a heavy accent- and they are trying to sail away, after they have had an incident and other such invented details from a fake story.
Walt Whittaker, the paterfamilias, finally understands that his son was right when he was trying to warn him, but it is too late now, as the strangers take out a machine gun, take them inside and instruct the family to cooperate so that they are not forced to use violent methods, give them the keys to their car- Walt is trying to say there is not enough gas, but the –always incompetent?- Soviets pay no attention and they will be stranded- again- this time on the road.
The next stop of the team of “invaders” is at the house of a local elderly woman, Alice Foss, who barely has enough time to pick up the phone and sound the alert “The Russians have landed and they have attacked me” which would first sound so incredulous as to be dismissed, but would then spread around the island as wild fire
The phone operator- they placed calls through these essential workers in those days- calls the sheriff with the message from the panicked old lady, but the official thinks of the other false alarm from the same claimant and is not too worried about it, even if he soon has to mobilize his workforce, small as it is.
Meanwhile, Alice Foss is immobilized by the invading Soviet Force, for some reason suspended on the wall and her husband comes to the kitchen, where he does not see, but calls her until a friend enters the room and then the spouse asks: “what are you doing there Alice”…the woman had been trying to signal him for quite some time now.
Slowly, the news of the invasion reaches the town and a group of cowboys, led by a would be civilian vigilante, leader of the Resistance against the occupying enemy army, Fendall Hawkins, clashes with the more reasonable and skeptical Police Chief Link Mattocks- the two are even ready to fight each other, the chief taking and breaking the sword of the imagined commander of the Island Civilian Army.
Walt Whittaker fights with the soldier left to guard the family, Alexei Kolchin, takes his machine gun and takes the bicycle into town to alert the other people, while a drunk is made to take his horse and ride it to give the news of the Russian attack to the…Whittaker family- almost throughout the motion picture, the inebriated character tries to convince his mare to take the trip and only succeeds at the end.
The Russians take over the Post Office and then tie Walt Whittaker and the female operator together, making them struggle when their captors are gone, trying to release themselves and hop in the process through the offices, the stairs and finally on the pavement.
There is a lot of confusion on the island, some of it funny, part of it just silly, with various groups trying to defend the airport, where not foreigner has been seen, the Russians finally able to move their submarine, but then confronted by the local Police chief, who announces the Soviet captain that they are under…arrest.
The latter points out his cannon- a rather small piece of artillery, but in keeping with the diminutive vessel, which appears somewhat small to have made all the trip to America- at the local population and a standoff ensues, culminating in a supreme moment of tension, when a child slips from a high church tower and hangs at altitude, in danger of dying…
There are many good, amusing moments in the comedy The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, counterintuitively, if we consider the scare included in the title, the film has won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, Best Actor – categories for which it was nominated for the Oscars and also Best Writing.
During the period when the Americans and the Russians where confronting each other through proxy and the cold war, unlike today, when they may be shooting at each other over Syria and chemical weapons- which are all right with Putin-, a submarine is stuck near Gloucester Island in Massachusetts.
The captain seems to be the archetypical soviet apparatchik, placed there not for “what he knows, but whom he knows”, the stupid mistake of getting so close to shore and therefore risking the shipwreck of his vessel appears so silly as to be dismissed as incredible, but this sort of thing happened in communism, where many “leaders” where placed in their position because they showed an attachment to the “values „of the system and not any special skills.
In fact, if there are wrong things with this feature, one of the major flaws would be to depict the Coming Russians as so likeable, humane, decent, loveable, amusing, endearing and so many more positive traits that one would believe that these are actually Tibetans from the close entourage of the Dalai Lama that are represented here and not hardened Soviets, the forefathers of the guys who vote overwhelmingly- 80% or more!- for a dictator who invades Ukraine, kills ex-spies and whoever might near them, helps a monster like Assad and so much more without losing any sleep.
When the submarine is trapped, a team of nine men is sent to shore to get help and get the vessel into the ocean again, Lieutenant Rozanov aka Alan Arkin- winner of the Golden Globe and Oscar nominated for this performance- leading the unit and trying to get a boat to propel his comrades out of trouble.
The Russians arrive at the house of the Whittaker family, where the young son- who is probably about seven- observes the activities of seven strange men who sneak around their home, situated some distance from the other houses, and tells his father and mother who at first ignore him and then they thinks he is probably playing some game.
All until three foreigners knock at their door and ask directions, because they need a boat, for they are Norwegians- however, they say it wrong and with a heavy accent- and they are trying to sail away, after they have had an incident and other such invented details from a fake story.
Walt Whittaker, the paterfamilias, finally understands that his son was right when he was trying to warn him, but it is too late now, as the strangers take out a machine gun, take them inside and instruct the family to cooperate so that they are not forced to use violent methods, give them the keys to their car- Walt is trying to say there is not enough gas, but the –always incompetent?- Soviets pay no attention and they will be stranded- again- this time on the road.
The next stop of the team of “invaders” is at the house of a local elderly woman, Alice Foss, who barely has enough time to pick up the phone and sound the alert “The Russians have landed and they have attacked me” which would first sound so incredulous as to be dismissed, but would then spread around the island as wild fire
The phone operator- they placed calls through these essential workers in those days- calls the sheriff with the message from the panicked old lady, but the official thinks of the other false alarm from the same claimant and is not too worried about it, even if he soon has to mobilize his workforce, small as it is.
Meanwhile, Alice Foss is immobilized by the invading Soviet Force, for some reason suspended on the wall and her husband comes to the kitchen, where he does not see, but calls her until a friend enters the room and then the spouse asks: “what are you doing there Alice”…the woman had been trying to signal him for quite some time now.
Slowly, the news of the invasion reaches the town and a group of cowboys, led by a would be civilian vigilante, leader of the Resistance against the occupying enemy army, Fendall Hawkins, clashes with the more reasonable and skeptical Police Chief Link Mattocks- the two are even ready to fight each other, the chief taking and breaking the sword of the imagined commander of the Island Civilian Army.
Walt Whittaker fights with the soldier left to guard the family, Alexei Kolchin, takes his machine gun and takes the bicycle into town to alert the other people, while a drunk is made to take his horse and ride it to give the news of the Russian attack to the…Whittaker family- almost throughout the motion picture, the inebriated character tries to convince his mare to take the trip and only succeeds at the end.
The Russians take over the Post Office and then tie Walt Whittaker and the female operator together, making them struggle when their captors are gone, trying to release themselves and hop in the process through the offices, the stairs and finally on the pavement.
There is a lot of confusion on the island, some of it funny, part of it just silly, with various groups trying to defend the airport, where not foreigner has been seen, the Russians finally able to move their submarine, but then confronted by the local Police chief, who announces the Soviet captain that they are under…arrest.
The latter points out his cannon- a rather small piece of artillery, but in keeping with the diminutive vessel, which appears somewhat small to have made all the trip to America- at the local population and a standoff ensues, culminating in a supreme moment of tension, when a child slips from a high church tower and hangs at altitude, in danger of dying…
March 18, 2009
The 1966 movie "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" was based on this book. I loved the movie, and bought the movie tie-in edition of the book immediately (well, as immediately is possible for a 14-year-old with a fifty-cent-a-week allowance). The book and movie are really different, but both are wonderful. My original mass market copy (which I paid the grand sum of $1.50 for!) eventually disappeared, or disintergrated. A few years ago, after I discovered Ebay, I was able to get a trade cloth first printing! And the movie is available on DVD! They both make me laugh.
January 23, 2012
12/10/11 - My across-the-street neighbor frequently vacations at Nantucket Island. I borrowed this book from him after he told me that the movie THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, was based on this book. I thought the movie was pretty funny and am looking forward to reading the book.
1/22/12 - I've just finished THE OFF-ISLANDERS. It was an OK read, somewhat funny, in a slap-stick sort of way. I wouldn't give it a very high recommendation.
1/22/12 - I've just finished THE OFF-ISLANDERS. It was an OK read, somewhat funny, in a slap-stick sort of way. I wouldn't give it a very high recommendation.
May 23, 2021
I have always loved the movie "The Russians are Coming". But until now I have never read the book which inspired the movie. I am very happy that I did, and even happier that the movie and book share a concept, a Russian Submarine coming to American shores, and running aground on an island, but not much else. A few of the names of characters are the same, and Fendall Hawkins is recognizable in both, but there the similarities end. The movie was a nicer version of events, funny, with understanding reached at the end. The book is a little more realistic, but still very funny, and with no understanding reached. I particularly loved the fight in the town dump, when everyone has run out of ammo, and must use whatever is at hand. I could easily find fault with a movie made from a book, picking out the passages, important to me, that were not included. But here I can honestly say that the book and movie are so different, and each so enjoyable, that I love them each on their own. A worthwhile read.
September 10, 2021
The 1965 film "The Russians are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" is based -- very loosely -- on this 1961 novel. If you're familiar with what I think is a great movie, you'll recognize these similarities: a Soviet submarine has become grounded on a New England island, Russians go ashore to try to find a boat to help free the sub, the people of the fishing village are quirky, and some of the names of the characters are the same in both book and movie. That's about it. The Americans in the book are stupid, but not endearing. The Russians in the book, while somewhat incompetent, are mean and decidedly unfunny. There are no real heartwarming moments in the book. No coming together across the Cold War divide. No grand escape for the submarine crew with the complicity of the Americans. This is an example of the movie being far, far superior to the book.
August 30, 2022
After spending several days on Martha’s Vineyard I decided to read this book (aka by the movie title The Russians Are Coming) set either there or Nantucket during the Cold War.
It’s a funny, but lovable, story of the oddball winter people of the island getting in a tizzy because a Russian sub hits a sandbar and they think they’re being invaded.
It’s certainly out of date, but I enjoyed the characters and the story very much.
It’s a funny, but lovable, story of the oddball winter people of the island getting in a tizzy because a Russian sub hits a sandbar and they think they’re being invaded.
It’s certainly out of date, but I enjoyed the characters and the story very much.
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February 11, 2020Libes book - the book the movie “The russians are coming, The russians are coming” was based on - ok story. Movie might have been better
February 3, 2021
Entertaining Cold War comedy, which reminded me of Whisky Galore (though obviously American rather than Scottish)
November 14, 2011
Benchley's classic tale of humorous antics involving a Russian sub crew, stranded on the sandbars of Nantucket, off season. These off-Islanders are certainly not welcome, though not less welcome than the new school teacher! The islanders pull together in a hilarious way to defend their territory from invasion. A nice, light-hearted story of alliances, new and old, made and broken and re-made again. Highly recommended. An easy read.
June 5, 2013
I gave this to my mother as a gift probably at Christmas back in the 60's. I figure I must have read it at some point but I have no memory of it. The movie("The Russians Are Coming...") was only so-so. The original island in question was Nantucket I think but the movie was shot up around Mendocino. Date read is a guess. The title should include "The... "
August 11, 2015
Most folks will remember this from the movie The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. Although the name Nantucket Island is never mentioned in the book anyone living here will recognize places within the pages.
March 20, 2010
Read this in grade 12 when I was supposed to be doing Geography ( back in i967). I'm going to try re-reading it to see if it is still funny.
It is a Cold War spoof so I wonder if it is still relevant.
It wasn't as funny the second time around.
It is a Cold War spoof so I wonder if it is still relevant.
It wasn't as funny the second time around.
June 18, 2017
Worth reading if only to become familiar with the wonderful Benchley family: Nathaniel Benchley (writer of this fun tale) is the father of Peter Benchley ('Jaws') and Nathaniel himself was the son of Robert Benchley, famous Manhattan/Hollywood wit and Algonquin Round Table founder. Quite a dynasty.
August 11, 2009
On of the funniest books I've ever read.
October 28, 2011
Very funny book and well written.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews