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Jul 06, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

What Nevil Shute may lack in eloquence he makes up for by providing the particulars that bring to life a distant place and time.
This is a love story, but not a romance. There's no sex, no sappiness, no gasping or google eyes. Just a lot of hardship, hard work, and, most notably, hope.

Jean Paget and Joe Harman meet in Malaya during World War II. She is British, he Australian, and both are prisoners of the Japanese. Joe sacrifices all to provide a little food for Jean's bed More...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Lucy rated it:

A Town Like Alice reminds me so much of my favorite book, Mrs. Mike. Both catalog the difficulties and triumphs of living in remote areas. Both are historical. Both have a strong and engaging female protagonist who are in love with a man responsibly tied to a piece of land. Neither are fluffy Harlequins but make that pit in the bottom of your stomach churn with romance.

In short, I loved it. A Town Like Alice follows Jean Paget, a Scottish woman who was raised by her parents in Malay More...

9 comments like (14 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2010

Hannah rated it:

This is a very hard book to categorize or review. I read it almost 2 weeks ago, and have been trying to figure out how to convey it's essence. I won't be able to, but here goes:

A Town Like Alice starts off fairly dry, with a narrative by an old English attorney (who will continue to be the narrator of the story). He sets up the premise of why young Jean Paget, our heroine, comes to receive an inheritance. It's the early 1950's, and the old attorney and Jean form a friendship due More...

7 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Natalie rated it:

I tried to describe this book to my husband, and found myself unable to talk about the book without narrating the entire plot, but then backing away from that outline to explain that it wasn't a spoiler because what happens in the book is like the skeleton that the author hangs the depth of the story from.

That depth is in the characters and in the modest, yet compelling way the author describes as positive progress the way development can happen and economies can be created out of t More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2011

Dottie rated it:

I have never recommended this book to anyone who didn't absolutely love it and put it on their favorite list. It is very well written with an interesting plot and good love story.

A story of a young woman who inherits some money. The story is told from the attorney who manages her estate. She tells him about her experiences in Singapore during the war when the Japanese invade the English colony where she was just a young woman who was there working temporarily. There is nothing very sp More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lucy rated it:

This latest reading was my fourth time with this story. I have read it, listened to it, and seen a movie of it. Every time I enjoy it again on so many levels.
It is based on a real part of WWII history in which British women prisoners were marched under Japanese guard for months. The female lead character, Jean Pargeter, used her wits to stay alive and help others as well. Later on, after she was free again, she used her wits again to transform her adopted home, Willstown, into a "bonz More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2009

Kara rated it:

Story--great; writing--terrible. That pretty much sums it up for me. The author took interesting characters and concepts and made them as dull as possible by telling it through the eyes of the lawyer. I was constantly frustrated by that feeling of being removed from the characters and the action. I wanted it to be so much more vivid. If this had been written first person from Jean's perspective, it would have made a world of difference.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2009

Amie rated it:

What an excellent read. I enjoyed the narration of the story. It is told by an older man who is a solicitor in London. He tells the story in a matter of fact way but is not left without emotion. I can't believe all that happened in this relatively short story. It did not seemed rushed. The characters were very likable and heroic. My sister in law Erin gave me this book to read. Thank you again for another great book. She said that it is not in print anymore, but I will try to track down More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2008

Ellen rated it:

I discovered this book through the BBC big read where viewers choose their top 100 novels of all time. I decided that I would make it my goal to read all 100 books as a way to broaden my reading horizons.

While this book is an enjoyable read I believe that it hasnt dated that well and is quite racist in parts particularly against the Aboriginal people. Some of the language and terms used tended to jar with me and left me feeling quite uncomfortable. Although written in 1949 I still fe More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2008

Debbie rated it:

This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. For a start, I wasn't expecting it to be narrated by an elderly London solicitor.

It's a lovely book, though, of the sort of positive, warm, compassionate type that men don't seem to write these days--they're too busy doing their drugs and banging 'their' women. It's rare that you see a romance that actually is a romance--an intense attachment between two people who meet under extraordinary circumstances and carry each other away in thei More...

3 comments like

Jun 30, 2008

Josi rated it:

This is the story about a woman caught in Japanese occupied Malay during WWII. After the war she inherits some money and the final 2/3 of the book is what she does with it. I'm rather surprised I liked it so much since it didn't have a strong plot or characterization--and yet it was a fascinating read. It is not a true story but even after finishing it it's hard for me to beleive it didn't really happen--it feels so real. I learned a lot about England, WWII, and Australia. It was a slower read t More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 03, 2008

Jenny rated it:

I absolutely loved this book! I saw the movie years ago at my grandma's house & fell in love with it. I couldn't forget it & decided to finally read the book. I loved it, too! Though it's not a true story, the POW experience of the women is taken from a true story in Sumatra. I love the characters from this book & the main character is a strong, confident, smart, yet feminine woman. The only thing that really bothered me in this book is the rascist treatment of the Aborigines. Since this More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Lynn rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; although, you can tell that it was written by a man in the 50's. This book was broken down into three main parts: Jane's time during the war, two years after the war, and then her time in Milstown, Austrailia.

Jane Paget is a young English woman working in Malaya at the time of the Japanese invasion. She, along with 31 other women and children are marched around Malaya in an attempt by the Japanese to not have to deal with them. The first part of the More...

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Dec 30, 2011

Jane rated it:

Another read for my local book club. This is an "old" book--published around 1950--with a heroine, Jean Paget, at its center. Its narrator is English solicitor/attorney, Noel Strachan, who has been selected to administer an estate/trust for Jean. Jean, a native of Scotland, had spent a good portion of her childhood in Malaysia (or "Malaya" as the book calls it) due to her father's business interests. However, Jean and her elder brother get caught up in strife when Japan More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2011

Adam rated it:

This book was suggested by Maria Bustillos in a stinging article on Ayn Rand as a better version Atlas Shrugged. Like Atlas Shrugged, the hero is a woman who puts hard work and capital to use building businesses that employ and elevate the other characters of the story. The similarities end there. There are no struggles between rich and poor or, as Rand put it, “creators” and “moochers”; no cartoon-like heroes spun from the fantasy of someone thoroughly dissatisfied with everyone but herself; an More...

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Oct 26, 2011

Mike rated it:

I couldn't tell you why I have resisted reading "A Town Like Alice" for so many years. But I did. Perhaps it is for the best whatever time it is we chose to land a particular book in our hands.

When I began to read Shute's book, I quickly fell into it. Noel Strachan is perhaps one of the most charming narrators I've encountered. Shute's use of the aging British Solicitor to unveil the story of Jean Paget drew me into the tale.

It was a simple enough matter. Str More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2011

Mary Lou rated it:

Nevil Shute’s novel A Town Like Alice is an old-fashioned romance, historical fiction that is informative enough about World War II, Scotland, Britain and Australia to boost it into worthwhile pleasure reading. A bonus for women is that Shute’s female protagonist is independent, creative, and adventurous. She attracts the main male characters with her spirit and personality although her looks are a plus and her brain secures their admiration.

The story begins with a woman Jean Paget More...

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Oct 02, 2011

Peter rated it:

"Another on my BBC reading list...and a bit of a disappointment. It's a promising idea-Englishwoman Jean Paget survives a death march in Malaya during WWII with the aide of a handsome Aussie rancher. They pursue a romance halfway across the world and then make their life in the Outback. But the result is oddly lacking in emotion and reads like a documentary rather than a passionate tale.

Part of the problem is that much of the story is narrated by her London lawyer who by natu More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Two Bibliomaniacs rated it:

Noel Strachan got more than he bargained for when, as solicitor, he notified Jean Paget of her unexpected inheritance. He was intrigued by his new client and quickly learned of her horrific past. It turned out that Ms. Paget was taken prisoner by the Japanese’s army while working overseas in the country of Malaya. Along with several other women and children the group was marched unapologetically back and forth across the country while WWII ran its course. The conditions were ghastly and many More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 25, 2011

Jane rated it:

4 ½ stars. The last 2/3 of the book was uplifting and feel good. The first 1/3 was sad and depressing about prisoners of war.

STORY BRIEF:
Jean Paget was a single 21-year-old English girl living in Malay when the Japanese invaded Malay in 1942. The men were sent to camps but there were no camps for English women and children. The Japanese commander didn’t want responsibility for the women and children so he had some of his soldiers march them out of his area. Thus began many More...

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Apr 13, 2011

Rosanne rated it:

A Town Like Alice was recommended to me several times as an option for my book club. I decided that it was time to read it. I should have skipped it.

Jean Paget is a prisoner of war on the Island of Malaya along with a rag tag group of English women and children. It is there that she meets Joe Harman an Australian soldier who is crucified by the Japanese in charge because he stole chickens to give to the starving women. Upon Jean's return to England many years later; she inherits a More...

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Dec 14, 2010

Vanessa rated it:

Nevil Shute is one of my favorite authors, and A Town Like Alice is my favorite of his novels. A twentieth-century British author, Shute is probably best known for On the Beach, which became a major motion picture staring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in 1959 . I read Shute as a teen, then again as a young woman, and ... again and again. Although Shute himself was quite modest as an author, his books have lived on and have been republished many times after his death in 1960. Most of his books ar More...

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Oct 22, 2010

Stacey rated it:

I read this book while I was extremely sick (with food poisoning, I think), so I picked it up and put it down a lot, and it put my miserable health into perspective. I give it five stars (even though it maybe is more accurately a four star) because it was an engaging story, but mainly because there were so many little details of their life in Malay that are now familiar to me-- the rice paddies, lemon squash, words like kota bahru, it just gave it an added appeal.

It is one of those More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Leslie rated it:

This book by Nevil Shute makes several of the "best books of all time" lists. I had never heard of it, but added it to my list and randomly pulled it it off the shelf one day. It's good. I don't know that I would put it near the top of my favorite books list, but it's good.

The book is hard to explain. It's almost like a series of short stories that are connected by one main character. It follows Jean Paget through London where she receives an inheritance, through Malaysia dur More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2009

Nicole rated it:

I am so pleased I've read this. After 'On the Beach' I had not really wanted to read another by Shute but 'A Town Like Alice' is as uplifting as 'On the Beach' is depressing.
Set in Malaya during the Japanese occupation we follow the forced itinerant wanderings of the female prisoners of war as each commanding officers tries to avoid the drain on his resources feeding these people requires. The women wander with a dwindling handful of guards from village to village. With the death of their f More...

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Aug 12, 2010

Amy rated it:

I was really hoping this novel wouldn't end. It wasn't perfect; I could have done without some of the description regarding Australian cattle ranching. But I really was riveted from the start. I couldn't put it down and ended up staying awake, reading, until six this morning.

From the start, I really cared about each of the characters. The author has such an amazing talent for painting a portrait of each character quite swiftly, without any extraneous description. I ended up biting my More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 12, 2009

Kellyreaderofbooks rated it:

A Town Like Alice is the story of Englishwoman Jean Paget, who is living and working in Malaya when the Japanese invade during WW II. Jean is captured by Japanese soldiers, and taken as a prisoner (of sorts) with other English women and children.

I loved the first 2/3 of this book, in particular the parts that take place during the occupation. However, when the plot shifts abruptly later on, I started to lose interest. The book goes from a gripping, hard to put down tale of survival, More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2011

Maree ♫ Light's Shadow ♪ rated it:

You can tell that this is an older book, despite the newer edition, just by the words and flow of the story. That makes it difficult for me, as a modern reader, to rate, considering I like a lot of things about the modern story that hadn't yet made it into the story-telling format of the 1950s. A story like this, reprinted, is obviously more of a classic, and it needs to be taken in appreciation with the times.

Because when compared with the stories of today, to me it feels like the b More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Katrina rated it:

A Town Like Alice tells the tale of Jean, a young girl who grew up being able to speak Malayan as her father had worked there. Before the war starts she wanted an adventure so went to work as a typist in Malay. But the war changed everything. When the British families in the area were gathered up to be put into prisoner of war camps by the Japanese the men where separated from the women and led of to Singapore. The group of women and children were left behind in search of a camp to put them in. More...

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Jan 24, 2011

Peter rated it:

I enjoyed this book having borrowed an electronic version from the library on my Kobo. The story is narrated by an ageing English solicitor, Noel Strachan who is employed by a dying man in Ayr to manage his will, leaving his large estate to his only living relative, a young woman by the name of Jean Paget. The dying man's wish is for the money to be kept in a trust until Jean reaches the age of 35, believing that a woman in her 20s is not fit to inherit such a large some of money.

Afte More...

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