UPDATED REVIEW: A TOWN LIKE ALICE by NEVIL SHUTE.
I am now posting a more in depth review of this wonderful novel.
This book has to be one of the great love stories of all time. It is based on true events which happened in Sumatra during WW2 when a group of European women were forced by the Japanese to march for thousands of miles. This is one of Nevil Shute’s best loved novels and one which I read as a teenager. I admired Nevil Shute’s writing and his close association with aviation. He was a practical man with imagination and wrote about what he knew best in his quiet unassuming way. This book, along with others, was made into a movie in the fifties starring the great Australian actor, Peter Finch as Joe Harman the Australian cattleman from the outback. Virginia McKenna plays the lead role as the English heroine, Jean Paget. A TV minis series was also made during the eighties.
The story is told by an English solicitor who is executor of a will which causes him to search for a woman who is the only surviving party named in the will. He finds her eventually, and she tells him her story of how she’d been captured by the Japanese during the war along with more than thirty other women in Malaya. Along the way, she meets an Australian and of course, they fall in love, but there is no time for a relationship to develop as they only see each other a few times.
SPOILER ALERT!
During the march, half the women die, of exhaustion, decease and starvation. One mother dies and Jean carries the woman’s child on her hip for the rest of the trek and when Joe Harman meets her, he naturally believes her to be married. Very concerned, the gallant Aussie steals chickens from the Japanese to feed the malnourished women. For this, he is crucified. The women are marched away with Jean Paget believing she is the main cause of his horrible death. The storyline is nicely constructed and believable with the POV switching neatly between the old English solicitor, Jean Paget and Joe Harman.
The money Jean inherits does not come to her without complications, since her uncle did not believe women were capable of handling money. She will get an allowance until she is thirty-five, after which time she will inherit a sizeable sum. The book tells the story of what she does with the money and with the careful management and advice of the old solicitor (who becomes her best friend and admirer). The story takes place over a period of more than ten years, between Malaya, England and Australia, but is never dull. As time goes by, Jean’s courage and unexpected talents are revealed.
I have to confess this book gave me a lump in my throat. I am English and I love anything telling of life in the colonies i.e. Somerset Maugham et al. Shute does wonderful job in his unaffected way of storytelling. The plotting is masterful, the characters uplifting. I’d like to see a remake of this on film.
This book has to be one of the great love stories of all time. It is based on true events which happened in Sumatra during WW2 when a group of European women were forced by the Japanese to march for thousands of miles. This is one of Nevil Shute’s best loved novels and one which I read as a teenager. I admired Nevil Shute’s writing and his close association with aviation. He was a practical man with imagination and wrote about what he knew best in his quiet unassuming way. This book, along with others, was made into a movie in the fifties starring the great Australian actor, Peter Finch as Joe Harman the Australian cattleman from the outback. Virginia McKenna plays the lead role as the English heroine, Jean Paget. A TV minis series was also made during the eighties.
The story is told by an English solicitor who is executor of a will which causes him to search for a woman who is the only surviving party named in the will. He finds her eventually, and she tells him her story of how she’d been captured by the Japanese during the war along with more than thirty other women in Malaya. Along the way, she meets an Australian and of course, they fall in love, but there is no time for a relationship to develop as they only see each other a few times.
SPOILER ALERT!
During the march, half the women die, of exhaustion, decease and starvation. One mother dies and Jean carries the woman’s child on her hip for the rest of the trek and when Joe Harman meets her, he naturally believes her to be married. Very concerned, the gallant Aussie steals chickens from the Japanese to feed the malnourished women. For this, he is crucified. The women are marched away with Jean Paget believing she is the main cause of his horrible death. The storyline is nicely constructed and believable with the POV switching neatly between the old English solicitor, Jean Paget and Joe Harman.
The money Jean inherits does not come to her without complications, since her uncle did not believe women were capable of handling money. She will get an allowance until she is thirty-five, after which time she will inherit a sizeable sum. The book tells the story of what she does with the money and with the careful management and advice of the old solicitor (who becomes her best friend and admirer). The story takes place over a period of more than ten years, between Malaya, England and Australia, but is never dull. As time goes by, Jean’s courage and unexpected talents are revealed.
I have to confess this book gave me a lump in my throat. I am English and I love anything telling of life in the colonies i.e. Somerset Maugham et al. Shute does wonderful job in his unaffected way of storytelling. The plotting is masterful, the characters uplifting. I’d like to see a remake of this on film.
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