Customer Reviews

The Far Country (Vintage Classics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shute's A Town Like Alice is one of my all time favourite books so I was a bit worried that The Far Country wouldn't live up to my expectations. It did. It's a great book to curl up in bed with. It is very sweet and romantic. It tells the story of a young English woman's holiday in the Australian outback just after World War Two. She travels from a grim, rainy, poor country to the land of plenty. She soon grows to love the wild countyside of Australia and meets an older doctor who came there as a displaced person from Europe. Through their friendship they learn a lot about themselves and their adopted home.

What a storyteller! Shute didn't live too long. I'm so glad he found time to write these human adventures along with all the other things he did. I did not realize until I read this book how bad things were in Great Britain after WWII. Makes me want to go to Australia (in the early 1950's). One of Shute's strengths is character description and development. I'm so glad I found my own copy of this book at Amazon! It was getting difficult to locate copies at the library. Why was this great story never filmed? This has to be as good as the author's A Town Like Alice and No Highway.

Jennifer Morton moves to London, temporarily, to take care of her ailing grandmother, who, before her death, speaks of times, now gone, when life was so much better in England, as though she recognizes the dissolving of a great culture, which her granddaughter will never know.
In her last day of life, she passes on the Jennifer a timely gift of money, received from her distant niece in Australia, and with it expresses her wish for Jennifer to go soon, to seek a better and new life in the opportunities offered in "The Far Country." Living up to her grandmother's words, she follows her adventuresome spirit and sails to the other side of the world for this new discovery.
Warmly received by her niece at the sheep station, she experiences the abundance of life in Queensland, where she feels at home - immediately - and can now clearly compare the differences between the continents. The new country brings refreshing contrast compared to the dreariness of her post-war nation, so plagued by needless government regulations and restrictions on all of life's commodities, even food.
Freedom is what she experiences for the first time in her life and, with it, can fully understand her grandmother's wish for her to seek it. While there, she also notices hardships, endured by others who seek alternative ways to reach this very same freedom. They are the lumberjacks - the refugees from around the globe - who have accepted two-year forestry commitments to buy into the opportunities ahead. Australia attracts them and, in return for their two years of hardship, they can gain their new beginning in their new land.
So it is with Carl Zlintner, a Chechoslovakian doctor, a World War II refugee, who has nine months to go before his own two years are finalized. He has no money and is ready to pursue life as a lumberjack in his future. However, hidden in the forest, he stumbles across the grave of a man, now dead for many years... a man with a recognizable name.
How Jennifer Morton and pursuit to learn more about this dead man bring new life to the doctor, is a moving and powerful story of willingness to endure, readiness to sacrifice and determination to reach the goals ahead.
It's a story about life and about love, wonderful and inspiring, so totally Nevil Shute!

I found this book on the shelf at my local libary. By the cover, it had nothing to recommend it--beat up, dull blue, writing on the binding flaking off. The only reason I checked it out was because it was by Nevil Shute, one of my favorite authors. It sat on my pile of "to read" for six weeks before I picked it up in a moment of boredom & started reading. My boredom was gone immediately and I spent the rest of the day in post WWII Australia with the two main characters--Jennifer, a young woman who is visiting Australia compliments of a small legacy left to her by her grandmother, and Carl Zlinter, a Czechoslovakian emmigrant planning to make a life in Australia after he has completed his required labor contract. Wow, what a great book! The plot twists kept me off balance, the characters were interesting & the type of people you'd like to have living next door to you, there was enough action to keep you interested but not detract from the story, there was a bit of a mystery and the end was what you'd hoped for the entire time without expecting it to happen because of another exciting plot twist. I would give this book six stars out of five. I plan to visit my library soon to look for some more surprises like this one!

this was the second book of nevil shute's books i am reading , the first one being A TOWN LIKE ALICE-and i liked it--it tells us about two people-an younge english girl and a european doctor--who meet in australia---their's is astory of friendship and old fashioned love. the contract between england and australia is brought out well.

I always enjoy returning to this book. Nevil Shute makes you deeply interested in his characters, who are such real people they could be living next door. His protagonists are usually simple, clever, thoughtful people.

I read On the Beach and Town Like Alice decades ago. Loved them but never bothered to look for more of his work. What a pity! I happened upon this old hardback copy recently in a thrift store, and what a find! From the first few pages I was captured by his descriptions and by his characters. He sometimes got a bit repetitious, but I soon became so enamored by his story that I really didn't care. I also liked the down to earth writing; the kind that is readable without being simple, the kind that doesn't distract from the plot but rather carries it along. Its an old fashion love story, about connecting with people and a land. Wonderfully done.

This is my fifth Nevil Shute book, and one of my favorites, right up there with Trustee from the Tool Room. I love the way the author develops his characters, and describes the setting without boring the reader. As another reviewer has said of Shute, his characters are good people. In our modern day of reality t.v. and false heroes, it's so enjoyable to read Shute's books with people who seem decent and real in their time. There are no villains or "bad guys", only people trying to make the best of their lot, and this story is no exception. The story is set post WWII, and vividly describes, through the unfolding story, the differences between post WWII England and Australia. How interesting.
Such an enjoyable read. My only complaint is that the story had to end.