464. A Town Like Alice

A Town Like Alice
Nevil Shute Norway
1950
Around 360 pages

It's unusual for the List to include a romance novel, which is understandable. Romance novels suggest women have an alternative purpose other than developing male protagonists. Oh, I kid because I love. In true List fashion, even the romances include a death march, rape, and the murder of children. I guess our Fanny Burney days are through.

Jean Paget recently inherited her uncle's estate. However, she only receives a small income and can only access the full amount when she turns 35. You know how flighty young women can be, compared to the emotionally grounded men of the 1950s. Her trustee Noel Strachan takes special interest in Jean, after she reveals her ultimate goal is to build a well in Malaya. We then flashback to Jean's experiences in the war as a prisoner of war in Japan and her romance with an Australian soldier, Joe Harman.

Shute believed women were forced to march around Sumatra for two-and-a-half years, covering 1,200 miles, with fewer than 30 people surviving the march. The Nevil Shute Foundation explained this was a misunderstanding, and that the women were actually transported from prison camp to prison camp by the Japanese. I don't think it's particularly important to get mired in the details, there are no shortage of wartime atrocities to compare this to.

So this is obviously a very upsetting story that is uplifting in its own way, by demonstrating that love and kindness can be found even in the darkest places. And Norway took us to a very dark place. I wasn't very interested in the frame narrative with Noel Strachan, so that part was a snore for me.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Norway based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, whom Shute met in 1948 at a ranch in Queensland. Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, had been crucified for 63 hours by Japanese soldiers on the Burma Railway. He had later escaped execution a second time, when his "last meal" of chicken and beer could not be obtained. He lived until 2000. What a bad ass.

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