Access Instantly A Town Like Alice Narrated By Nevil Shute Displayed As Paper Copy
book captured me, heart and soul, I've read a lot of great books this year, and this goes right up there at the top of the list.
It was an intricately plotted storyline with a lot of details that were vital, so you had to pay attention right from the start.
All the characters were beautifully realized, as were the different settings of Malaya during WWII, post war England, and the outback of Australia.
Jean Paget was a quiet, intelligent, competent girl who always seemed to know what to do, and did it with courage.
Joe Harmon was the Aussie she met during her time in Malaya, knew only briefly, but could never forget, I have to admit that he became another of those fictional heroes that I fell in love with, Noel Strahan is the elderly lawyer who is handling an inheritance that Jean learns about after the war, and the narrator.
He learns Jean's story about her war experiences, halfway falls in love with her himself, but is instrumental in helping her find her happiness in Australia.
I saw this miniseries inwhen it was on television and read the book afterwards, so this was my second read, but it might as well have been my first for all I remembered.
I have been enthralled for the last several days and am sad to be leaving this world and these people.
Nevil Shute now has to be added to honored author status and I'll be hunting down his books, I join my Goodreads friends who have been shouting his praise, Written in, Nevil Shute's classic novel acquaints the reader with Jean Paget, a young English women living in Malaya during the Japanese occupation.
Taken as P. O. W. s, she and a group of English women and children are forced on a seven month death march through the jungle.
Due to her resourcefulness she becomes the spokesperson, negotiating for food, medicine, and other basic needs, After enduring this horrific experience, she returns to London and learns she is the benefactor of a substantial inheritance, Remembering an Australian P. O. W. who befriended her group in Malaya, she travels in Alice Springs, a desolate outpost in the outback, Here she again demonstrates her vision, ingenuity and entrepreneurial skills helping this lonely place become a desired and thriving location.
Based partly on a true story, Shute has written an account of an amazing woman, one who knew how to overcome adversity and survive.
His writing is not lyrical I didn't reread sentences for the beauty of the words, It is a story of hope and perseverance, of courage and love, Some abbreviated editions and also the original movie turned this beautiful book into a sappy love story it is so much more.
Published in, this modern classic is a story of a smart and capable woman, Jean Paget, as told by her solicitor and trustee, Noel Strachan, from thes tos.
She is the heir to a trust established by an uncle, which is administered by Strachans firm, He becomes not only her solicitor but her friend, She eventually tells him about her time in Malaya now part of Malaysia during WWII, when she and a group of women with children were marched hundreds of miles to various villages, each Japanese leader sending them on to the next to avoid having to feed them.
They suffer tremendous hardships, but eventually find a way to remain in one station until the war ends, While there, Jean meets an Australian soldier who tries to help them, to his peril, She returns to England, meets with Strachan, and travels back to Malaya and on to Australia, where the bulk of the novel transpires.
It provides a vivid picture of what life was like in the Australian Outback at that time,
Themes include a womans place in society, entrepreneurship, and renewal of life after war, The attitudes of the period are in evidence in racial issues and gender roles however, the author is attempting to show that these views are false.
For example, Jean, being a woman, is assumed to be incompetent with money, but she proves to be an astute businesswoman.
She also figures out a way to improve the lives of the women of the Malayan village that helped her group during the war.
The characters are likeable and convincing, The romantic elements of the story are held in the background and do not take over the narrative, I think it might have been even more effective if Jean had told her own story, as we are getting information secondhand, which keeps the reader at a bit of distance.
I am not sure how our narrator got information about her love life, which she surely would not have mentioned at the level of detail portrayed or perhaps this is how Strachan imagined it took place He obviously cares for her deeply.
I think this book will appeal to those who enjoy stories of international travel, altruism, or strong women,
The Legacy A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
A Town Like Alice is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published inwhen Shute had newly settled in Australia.
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner of World War II in Malaya, and after liberation emigrates to Australia to be with him, where she attempts, by investing her substantial financial inheritance, to generate economic prosperity in a small outback communityto turn it into "a town like Alice" i.
e. Alice Springs. The story falls broadly into three parts, First part in postWorld War II London, Jean Paget, a secretary in a leather goods factory, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has inherited a considerable sum of money from an uncle she never knew.
The second part of the story flashes back to Jean's experiences during the war, when she was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese invaded and was taken prisoner together with a group of women and children.
The third part of the book shows how Jean's entrepreneurship gives a decisive economic impact to develop Willstown into "a town like Alice" also Jean's help in rescuing an injured stockman, which breaks down many local barriers.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه ژوئن سالمیلادی
عنوان: شهری چون آلیس نویسنده: نویل شوت مترجم: علی کهربایی تهران نشر دشتستاندرص شابک:چاپ دیگر با عنوان: راهی نیست تهران دشتتاندرص شابک:موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان استرالیائی سدهم
داستان شرح ماجراهای بانویی انگلیسی به نام جین است که در جنگ جهانی دوم به دست نیروهای ژاپنی اسیر میشود و با بسیاری دیگر از اسرا وضعیتی دشوار را سپری میکند. فضای مرگ آور اردوگاه تاثیری سوء بر اسیران میگذارد اما جین با روحیه ای وصف ناپذیر امید به روزگار بهتر را همچنان حفظ میکند و سرانجام ا. شربیانی
This is Nevil Shute's best novel, I just finished my second read, Actually I listened to it, narrated beautifully by Robin Bailey, It's a fabulous long story about war, love, and one woman, Jean Paget, who has the smarts, guts and generosity to save and improve the lives of everyone who comes within her sphere in every situation in which she finds herself.
I grew to admire and adore not only Jean but also theother main characters in this story as it moved from WWII Malaya to London and then to the Australian outback.
As the story grew to a close tears welled up in my eyes for I knew that my time with these lovely people was coming to an end.
I wanted to stop listening so that the story wouldn't end but I couldn't stop because I wanted to hear how it ended.
I will not forget Jean Paget nor her story for a very long time,
This is such a beautiful story well told,
Highly recommended. Debatedly Shute's most famous work, And what can I say well, this is a marvellous piece of fiction mainly set in 'the Far East' in Malaysia and in Australia, covering the Second World War and postwar life of the amazing Jean Paget as recounted by her solicitor.
A truly wonderful, wonderful tale, by a great scribe,out of.
read 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 now known as Malaysia, returns to work there as an adult and ultimately finds herself trapped there as a Prisoner of War when the Japanese invade the Island during World War II.
Her captivity is accurately described as horrible, with starvation and long marches from town to town killing many women and children.
But, it also shows that unique ability of women to nurture, even in the most degrading situations, When she meets Joe Harman, an Australian ringger cowboy and fellow POW, he tells Jean about his home and work near Alice Springs, a bonza town in the heart of the Outback.
The two extremely lonely and isolated characters become friends, Eventually, when Joe steals five chickens to feed the sick and hungry women and children, Jean is interrogated and punished until Joe confesses and is later crucified by a cruel Japanese leader.
The story's narration is directed by an elderly British attorney, Noel Strachan, who is put in charge of a trust Jean's uncle leaves her.
Even with the narration in his control, most of the story is told through Jean sharing her memories to Noel.
Eventually, I found Noel's involvement and third party perspective very satisfying, mostly because it allowed the author to cover a greater amount of time without seeming overly jumpy.
The book was written inand feels like it at times, The attitudes of segregation and thoughtless caricatures of minorities creates feelings of discomfort and embarrassment, However, it's not done with malice, and the story isn't about racial barriers at all, so I didn't find it offensive.
If anything, it allows a glimpse into an unapologetic view that most white people probably had at the time which is actually an interesting glimpse on its own.
I appreciated this book for its less frequently told story of female prisoners of war and for its celebration of the human spirit.
Some books I feel I have to give, even if the book has some considerable flaws, For me, sitelinkAuē was one such book,
A Town Like Alice is another
The story begins gently with an
aging London solicitor, Noel Strachan, recounting how he came to meet elderly and wealthy Scotsman, James McFadden, and helped him draw up his will.
When McFadden dies, Strachan tracks down his sole surviving relative, Jean Paget, It is fair to say the Noel is charmed by this young lady who says she feels about seventy and will never marry.
So how does this story end up in Northern Australia I can't really tell any more without giving away too much of the plot.
I can tell you that the middle part of this novel does have considerable impact in fact some pages were the most powerful I have ever read amp was nearly impossible to put down.
I found parts of it very romantic, parts of Jean's experiences are very distressing, And you have to grit your teeth and swallow a lot when reading about the attitudes of the time, both to women and to anyone who wasn't white.
The use of what would now if it wasn't then be considered racial slurs is very hard to read I don't think I have ever seen so many in one book.
By the end end it was detracting from my enjoyment of the book, but whether or not Shute shared these attitudes they were authentic for the time and I still admired the hero and heroine of this book very much.
I managed to acquire easily most of Shute's titles over the years, This one took me longer, I have a feeling this book is a keeper for most people and that is why it rarely turns up in secondhand bookshops.
Further reading Nevil Shute met Carry Geysel after the war, Due to a misunderstanding he thought her life during WWhad been even harder than it was, sitelink nevilshute. org/Misc/Carry
sitelink
sitelink com/view/carolshess There are books we can't be entirely rational about, For good or bad, they push our personal buttons, and we adore or detest them beyond their own merits,
A Town Like Alice is one of those books I love beyond reason, It contains courage, determination when the odds are against you, and taking action to change others' lives and the world around you for the better.
It has some bittersweet moments, as well as a little bit of romance,
Nevil Shute based thisnovel on a WWII story he had heard about Dutch women and children, who were Japanese prisoners of war, who were marched around Sumatra from place to place because the Japanese had no prison camp to put them in, many of them dying along the way.
As it turns out, he misunderstood the story: they didn't actually have to walk but were transported around the country.
He used this as the basis for this story of Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman who becomes the leader of a group of women and children who are forced to walk from town to town in Japaneseoccupied Malaya now Malaysia, in terrible circumstances.
Along the way they meet a kind Australian POW, Joe Harman, a young man who helps them with food and other necessities and quickly becomes a friend to Jean.
But Jean and Joe run into trouble when Joe steals some black Leghorn chickens for the underfed group, What happens then, and after, makes for a fascinating story,
Malaysian village
After the war, Jean inherits some money, and becomes friends with Noel Strachan, the elderly English solicitor who is her trustee.
Noel is the narrator for most of the novel, and sometimes his voice gets a little dry and tedious in relating tangential details, kind of befitting an aging lawyer I can say that :D.
At the same time, he has a certain oldfashioned charm and wry humor, Noel watches Jean fall in love with a distinct feeling of regret, since her new life will take her away from England, but he continues to help her as she begins to transform the Australian outback town where she has chosen to live.
Queensland, Australia
As he decides to travel to visit Jean to help her with some legal matters, one of his law partners is concerned for his health:
"I only wish you hadn't got to put so much of your energy into this.I've read this book three or four times over the years, I noticed much more this time how Noel's narration sometimes gets repetitive and tedious I wish I had a dollar for every time a character stared at someone or said "Oh my word".
After all, it's a fairly trivial affair, "
"I can't agree with that," I said, "I'm beginning to think that this thing is the most important business that I ever handled in my life, "
I don't know if Nevil Shute deliberately wrote it that way or if that's just his style of writing, But then there's a wonderful scene or a lovely turn of phrase, and I fall in love with this book all over again.
In the half light he turned as she came out of the hut, and he was back in the Malay scene of six years ago.It's oldfashioned in many ways, but it still moves and inspires me, And for that reason, despite its occasional weaknesses, it's staying at the full five,
She was barefooted, and her hair hung down in a long plait, as it had been in Malaya, She was no longer the strange English girl with money she was Mrs, Boong again, the Mrs. Boong he had remembered all those years,
Februaryreread/buddy read with Hana,
Previous review:
This is one of my alltime favorite books, It consists of two quite different halves, with the first half relating the travails of Jean Paget and a group of English women in Malaya during WWII, and the second half about Jean's romance with an Australian man she had met briefly during her travels in Malaya and her efforts to turn his Australian town into a decent place for women and families to live.
I may be in the minority of liking the second half better than the first, not just for the romance which is nice but doesn't take up a lot of space in the book but more for the way in which the main character takes action to change her town.
It's inspiring and enjoyable reading, even if rather deliberately paced at times, Highly recommended. .