A Town Like Alice: (Vintage Classics Shute Series)

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It was an enjoyable book, very easy reading, and had it's moments of sadness and amusement, but the story wasn't without some poorly conceived aspects. The romance was pretty lamely written, and contradictory they 'spent that day in a curious mixture of love-making and economic discussion' in one chapter, and then she apologies for 'making him wait until they are married', and as mentioned below, follows the conservative conventions in the town. Meanwhile, Joe has met a pilot who helped repatriate the women, from whom he learns that Jean survived the war and that she was never married. He travels to London to find her, using money won in the Golden Casket lottery. He finds his way to Strachan's office, but is told that she has gone travelling in the Far East. Disappointed, he gets drunk and is arrested, but is bailed out by Strachan. Without revealing Jean's actual whereabouts, Strachan persuades Joe to return home by ship and intimates that he may well receive a great surprise there. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute National Library of Australia free public access to books in Australian libraries. It would be tempting to say that "A Town Like Alice" is a sentimental romance and leave it at that. However, it goes beyond those limits in a depiction of courage and survival, while acting selflessly, and a life lived happily ever after. I'm told that happens some times. I wouldn't attempt to deny that degree of happiness to those that find it, nor would I sneer at it because I hadn't necessarily found it.

Shute’s writing style is crisp, concise, and straightforward. There is romance, but he presents it in such a practical fashion that the plot never bogs down in the melodrama of star crossed lovers. ”But Shute was a storytelling craftsman to his bones; an aeronautics obsessive-- there are very few authors who are also excellent engineers. He never constructs a lazy or shoddy sentence, any more than he’d have let the wings fall off one of his aeroplanes.” And don't get me started on the love story part of the book. Some of the most ludicrous and chauvinist parts of the book are sold as "romance" - having a character covered in bruises after a "romantic" encounter, letting the character say it was her fault, and following this up with an engagement ..... it just did not gel. I'm seriously confused by Shute. Or maybe he was? I've owned a copy of A Town Like Alice for more than ten years now, and I've always stopped short of reaching for it because... it just didn't sound that interesting to me. On the whole, I'm not a huge fan of war books, especially those set within the conflict itself. But I made a mistake waiting to read this one. I've been missing out. What would you give a bookworm that is about to emigrate to Australia? A novel where the story (partly) takes place in Australia haha. BUSH PREMIERE". The Australian Women's Weekly. 8 August 1956. p.33 . Retrieved 17 May 2012– via National Library of Australia.

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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. Nevertheless with these flaws I am still glad I read this well known book, but I am not sure I will seek out further Nevil Shute books immediately. 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. Some books I feel I have to give 5★, even if the book has some considerable flaws. For me, Auē was one such book. Due to her courageous spirit and ability to speak Malay, Jean takes on the role of leader of the sorry gaggle of prisoners and many end up owing their lives to her indomitable spirit. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result.

In comparison with the novels, "Garden of Evening Mist' , as well as "The Gift of Rain", authored by Tan Twang Eng, as well as numerous others, this tale softened the experiences of the prisoners considerably. Nevil Shute portrays the ground level Japanese troops as humane towards these wandering innocent victims of the war. It is probably one of the outstanding features in the tale. However, it is with this assumption of a guardianship that the book also shows its age and its outdated attitudes. And with respect to the generational differences, this may even be the point of the book (one of them), to show how attitudes towards women have changed, if only slightly (?) - Jean's uncle didn't believe an unmarried woman under 40 had sense enough to deal with money, her solicitor didn't share this attitude but still presided over the trust fund in a patronising manner, Jean herself didn't trust her ability (even tho she had already proven to be a very strong character) and it took encouragement for her to set up her own enterprise(s). The story is based on a true story and therefore can be expected to be treated with utmost respect. Fact and fiction is entwined here in such a way that the distinction between tale and truth becomes impossible. However, the impact of the story is very real and very striking.

by Nevil Shute

This novel had been lying about my house in India for a long time: an old copy somebody abandoned (I couldn't even recognise the name written on the cover). Old houses gather books like they do other things (moth-eaten clothes, faded photographs and chipped chinaware). This vacation, it kept on intruding itself into my consciousness so I said What the hell! and finally decided to read it.

Drama, suspense, romance and superb story-telling! Would I recommend it to a potential reader? Oh my word, yes! Too right! I'm not sure exactly where I'd rank it but I am quite certain I'd add it to my list of best lifetime novels. Yes, it's THAT good. Suffice to say A Town Like Alice is one of the most beautiful, captivating books I’ve ever read and I will be eternally grateful to my wonderful dad for insisting that I read it. Utterly deserved of its place in the BBC’s Big Read, I will forever remember this heart-warming read, and maybe one day I’ll get around to reading more of my dad’s recommendations.

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Malaysia, instead of Sumatra, is the focal country in this story by the author's own admission and choice. The women and children obviously suffered an unimaginable ordeal which could only be stressed in a novel like this, written by a master storyteller. There was no prisoner camps for them set up and the Japanese did not want to take responsibility for them. Their solution was to send them all over the place, from town to town on foot, covering hundreds of miles, hoping to unofficially terminate their lives through exhaustion and starvation. It worked. The Japanese military leaders almost succeeded. Eventually, at the end of the war, the remaining members of the group were repatriated. Having read the blurb on this novel I was really looking forward to reading this story as it was described as "Entertaining" and "Dramatic" but unfortunately for me I neither found the book Dramatic or entertaining and really could only be pushed to describing it as a pleasant read that is neither exciting or memorable. Anyway, The first half of the book is great, the second less so, which is mostly because the first half is a story in its own right and the second half takes away from it. Again, I'm seriously confused why Shute did this. Did he attempt an epic saga and fail?