A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
"A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute is a novel that explores themes of resilience, love, and community against the backdrop of post-World War II Australia. The story centers on Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman whose traumatic experiences as a prisoner during the Japanese occupation of Malaya shape her life and outlook. After the war, Jean learns of a legacy and embarks on a journey that leads her to Alice Springs, a small city that symbolizes the unique and challenging Australian landscape.
Through the eyes of lawyer Noel Strachan, who serves as the narrator, readers discover Jean's past hardships and her determination to build a better future. The narrative highlights her encounter with Joe Harmon, an Australian mechanic who also endured significant suffering during the war. Their reunion ignites a passionate romance, and together they work to uplift the outback community of Willstown by establishing a factory, bridging personal fulfillment with communal progress.
Shute's portrayal of Australia reflects his admiration for its vastness and the hardworking spirit of its people, offering insights into the social and geographical challenges they face. This poignant tale ultimately underscores the importance of connection, healing, and the potential for positive change in even the most remote settings.
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A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1950
Type of work: Novel
The Work
A Town Like Alice, more than any other work, reveals Shute’s feelings about Australia. Shortly after his first visit, Shute decided to move there. He bought a little farm in Victoria, and over time decided to make it his permanent home. He came to love and respect the hard-working people he met there, and he was fascinated by the distances people had to travel to get ordinary things like groceries, clothing, or medical care.
The “Alice” of the title is Alice Springs, a town right in the center of the continent, halfway between Darwin and Adelaide. Originally founded as a service center for the ranchers in the area, Alice Springs had grown to a delightful small city in the years after World War II.
The novel opens as the narrator, lawyer Noel Strachan, describes the history and establishment of a trust, as well as his dealings with the legatee, twenty-six year old Jean Paget. To him, she seems a pleasant enough woman, but she has an enduring sadness about her. Although she smiles, she doubts that she will ever marry or have a family. Over the course of the next few meetings, he learns her history. The child of English settlers in Malaya, Jean had worked as a typist. When Malaya fell to the Japanese army during World War II, Jean found herself among a group of thirty women and children forced by the invaders to march throughout Malaya because the Japanese lacked a female war camp on the island.
As Jean tells him her story, Noel is shocked at the hardships she faced. Most of the women and children died, some were victims of diseases like cholera or malaria, some succumbed to snakebite or starvation, while others were just worn out by the relentless walking in tremendous heat and humidity. Only Jean and a few others are left when, at one village, she meets another prisoner, a young Australian, Joe Harmon. Forced to serve as a truck driver and mechanic by the Japanese, Harmon is touched by the plight of the English women and manages to get small items for the group—soap, medicine, and some meat in the form of five roosters he steals from the local Japanese commandant. His punishment is swift and horrible; he is crucified in front of the whole village.
When the Japanese commander dies, the women and children beg to be allowed to stay in the village, and they spend the rest of the war there. Jean returns home to England, but as she later tells Noel, she drags around as if she were in her seventies. When she receives the first money from her legacy, she goes back to Malaya to build a well for the villagers who had taken pity on the captives. She decides to go on to Australia to find Joe Harmon’s home, an outback settlement, Willstown. In Willstown she is surprised and delighted to learn that Joe did not die but has survived. She finds him and they fall deeply in love. The rest of the novel tells how they marry and how she is able to help the lonely little outback town by building a factory to employ the locals.
Bibliography
Martin, David. “The Mind That Conceived On the Beach.” Meanjin, 19, no. 2 (June, 1960): 193-200.
“Nevil Shute Norway.” In Contemporary Authors, edited by Frances C. Loucher and Ann Evory. Vol. 102. Detroit: Thomson-Gale, 2004.
“Nevil Shute Norway.” In Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jean C. Stine and Daniel G. Marowski. Vol. 30. Detroit: Thomson-Gale, 1984.
Ryan, A. P. “Nevil Shute Norway.” In The Dictionary of National Biography, 1951-1960, edited by E. T. Williams and Helen M. Palmer. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Smith, Julian. Nevil Shute. Boston: Twayne, 1976.