Nevil Shute
Paperback | Pages: 359 pages Rating: 4.14 | 47720 Users | 3359 Reviews
Be Specific About Books Concering A Town Like Alice
| Original Title: | A Town Like Alice |
| ISBN: | 1842323008 (ISBN13: 9781842323007) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Jean Paget, Joe Harman |
| Setting: | Alice Springs, Northwest Territory,1948(Australia) Australia Malacca, Malaya …more Malaysia …less |
Commentary Supposing Books A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute's most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. Jean's travels leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.Describe Regarding Books A Town Like Alice
| Title | : | A Town Like Alice |
| Author | : | Nevil Shute |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 359 pages |
| Published | : | 2000 by House of Stratus (first published 1950) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Classics. Cultural. Australia. Romance. War |
Rating Regarding Books A Town Like Alice
Ratings: 4.14 From 47720 Users | 3359 ReviewsAppraise Regarding Books A Town Like Alice
I suppose it is because I have lived rather a restricted life myself that I have found so much enjoyment in remembering what I have learned in these last years about brave people and strange scenes. I have sat here day after day this winter, sleeping a good deal in my chair, hardly knowing if I was in London or the Gulf country, dreaming of the blazing sunshine, of poddy-dodging and black stockmen, of Cairns and of Green Island. Of a girl that I met forty years too late, and of her life in thatStory--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.
This month's bookclub pick, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, starts in England with an aging attorney setting up a trust. Most of the story follows Jean Paget, who spent most of World War II in Malaya as a prisoner of the Japanese. The journey after the war is the best part. It's a slow journey to get there, but paid off. Warning - there are some racist comments in here that seem a bit harsh even in 1950.
Jean Paget was part of a group of women and children captured by the Japanese at the beginning of the invasion of Malaya. The men were sent to camps while their captors didnt know what to do with the women and children. And so began the horrific march across Malaya, from one place to the next over miles and miles of dense jungle. During the walk, several of their party died, but Jeans role as leader went well as she was the only person able to speak the local language. When the diminished group
In 1941, Jean Paget is a young Englishwoman working and living in Panong Malaya, she's one of 32 women and children who are captured by Japanese army when they invaded Malaya and they have no idea what to do with them? They are told to start walking to a camp, they have a few Japanese soldiers as an escort and no idea where they are going! They set off the next morning, but the women are not dressed or wearing appropriate shoes to walk long distances and are also very unfit. At the beginning of
WWII POWs in Malaya; alligator shoes and ice cream in rural AustraliaA Town Like Alice is a "bonza" book (as one of its main characters, Joe Hardman of Australia, would say) about two love stories, two adventures and two remarkable characters inspired by a real-life man and woman who displayed remarkable bravery during WWII. Nevil Shute gives these two people new fictional lives, and as Joe and Jean they are inspirationally resilient as prisoners of war in Japanese-occupied Malaya and afterwards
When the opening sentence in a book includes the words "he was riding in the Driffield point-to-point" I can say my interest was piqued! Driffield is about 20 miles from where I live and I know it well. So I started this one with a smile and wondered where we were going...We went a long long way from that small Yorkshire town.. Jean Paget our main protagonist was working in Malaya at the time the Japanese arrived during WW2 . The Japanese army took many prisoners including Jean and 31 other
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