A Town Like Alice

"A Town Like Alice" (U.S. title: "The Legacy") is a novel by the English author Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. The "Alice" in the title refers to Alice Springs, Australia, although the town referred to is in the Gulf country of Queensland.

It was made into a motion picture in 1956 starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch, directed by Jack Lee. This film was known as "Rape of Malaya" in U.S. cinemas, and by various other titles in non-English-speaking countries.

In 1981, "A Town Like Alice" was adapted into a popular television miniseries, starring Helen Morse and Bryan Brown (with Gordon Jackson as Noel Strachan). It was broadcast internationally: in the United States, it was shown as part of the PBS series "Masterpiece Theatre".

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on The Reader's List of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. [ [http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html The Modern Library | 100 Best | Novels ] ]

Plot summary

This is a story in three parts.

The story begins in the 1930's with a Scottish lawyer, Noel Strachan, being asked to make changes to an old man's Will regarding his great niece and nephew following the death of their father in Malaya. Being old fashioned he requests that the legal firm keep control of any money for the young girl until she reaches a mature age.

A few years after World War II Strachan is informed that the man has passed away and he begins to search for the young family. It turns out that the mother has died in England, and the boy died as a prisoner of the Japanese. The girl, Jean Paget, was also in Malaysia and is now in England employed as a Secretary in a firm making high class leather goods.

Strachan tracks her down and informs her of her inheritance, and the restrictions that apply to it. She is now a wealthy woman and need never work again. For the firms interest, but increasingly for his own personal interest, he acts as a guide to her while the will is processed. After much thought on her part, when he finally asks what she would like to do with her life she replies that she would like to build a well.

The second part is the memories of Jean Paget which she tells Strachan. She was working in Malaya when the Japanese invaded, and ended up as one of a party of European women and children who are marched around Malaya by the Japanese, since no camp will take them in and the Japanese army does not want to take responsibility for them. Many of them die on the march, and the rest survive only on the charity of the local villagers. Her knowledge of Malayan proves invaluable to the group's survival.

On their march from one village to another, Jean meets a young Australian soldier, Joe Harman, also a prisoner. He steals food and medicines to help them, and they become friends. Harman believes she is married and Jean does not correct this to avoid complications. The thefts are investigated and Harmon takes the blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is severely punished by the Japanese authorities. The women are marched away and believe that he is dead.

Later, to survive, the group becomes part of a native village where they grow rice and work as part of the village. This saves their lives, and this is where Jean wants to build the well so the local women will not have to walk so far to collect water; "A gift by women, for women".

The lawyer arranges for her to travel to Malaysia where she travels back to the village and persuades the headman, a friend of hers, to allow her to build a well. While it is being built she discovers that by a strange chance Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She decides to travel on to Australia to find him. In her travels she visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war, and is much impressed with the quality of life there. She then travels to the primitive outback Queensland town of Willstown, where Joe has become manager of a cattle station, and soon discovers that Alice is an anomaly, life for a woman in the outback is very rugged. But she notices that leather goods there are much cheaper than they are sold in England. She makes a pair of shoes for the locals who do not know what use is made of their alligator skins.

In the meantime, Joe has learned that Jean survived the war and is unmarried, which he did not know, and so he has drawn down money he won in the state lottery in order to travel to Britain in search of her. He meets Noel who must decide on his clients behalf how to handle this situation. On Noel Strachan's advice, Harmon returns to Queensland, and the two finally meet again.

After some initial problems they eventually decide to marry, but there is still the problem of the outback. Jean has already thought about this, and using her inheritance, Jean starts several business enterprises to help the small outback town of Willstown develop into a place where people would like to live — "A town like Alice".

The last part of the book covers the starting of these businesses and Jean's help in rescuing an injured stockman, which breaks down many local barriers. The story closes many years later with an aged Noel Strachan visiting Willstown to see what has been done with the money he has given Jean to invest, and it is revealed that the money she inherited came from the Australian gold rush.

Historical accuracy

Jean Paget was based on Carry Geysel (Mrs J. G. Geysel-Vonck) whom Shute met while visiting Sumatra in 1949. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812708,00.html?promoid=googlep "Too Good to Be True" ("Time", June 12, 1950)] Access date June 6, 2007.] [ [http://203.15.102.140/news/languageGroup/lgCurDisp.php3?vlang=Dutch#123193 Special Broadcasting Service, 2005 "She was Nevil Shute's inspiration for a Town Like Alice"] Access date June 6, 2007.] Geysel had been one of a group of about 80 Dutch civilians taken prisoner by Japanese forces at Padang, in the Dutch East Indies in 1942, and forced to march around Sumatra for two-and-a-half years, covering 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles). Fewer than 30 people survived this march.

Shute based the character of Harman on Herbert James "Ringer" Edwards, an Australian veteran of the Malayan campaign, whom Shute met in 1948 at a station (ranch) in Queensland. [ [http://www.nevilshute.org/PhotoLine/PLD-1941-1950/pl-1941-1950-07.php Neville Shute Norway Foundation, "1948"] Access date June 6, 2007.] [ [http://www.quarto.iinet.net.au/QUARTO-DEPTHCHARGES.pdf Roger Bourke, 2001–2002, "‘Cultural depth-charges’: Traditional meaning and prisoner-of-war fiction"] Access date June 6, 2007.] Edwards 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. Crucifixion (or "Haritsuke") was a form of punishment or torture that the Japanese sometimes used against prisoners during the war.

The fictional "Willstown" is reportedly based on Burketown, Queensland, which Shute also visited in 1948. [Neville Shute Norway Foundation, "Ibid".] (Burke and Wills were well-known explorers of Australia.)

Themes

The protagonists share the colonial attitudes of the time: Aborigines are referred to as "boongs" or "abos", terms now considered racial slurs. It is also assumed that non-whites must use different shops and bars than whites and that they are less reliable than whites. The colonial attitudes are often presented not in an harmful, but ironic way, for example, when Joe Harman mistakes the female prisoners for native Malayan women, but learns that all of them are European. Also the captive British women are completely lost, because the only Malayan words they have learned are orders for their native servants, while Jean survives by use of her language skills and her willingness to live the Malayan way.

Another theme is the situation of women in western and Asian society. For example, Jean Paget is not given full control of the money she inherited by her uncle, but has her capital managed by the male members of a law firm. Also the Malayan women are subject to their husbands. Jean Paget makes a move toward female emancipation by digging a well in a Malayan village, so that the women of this village do no longer have to carry their water for two miles each day, and also have a meeting place next to the well where they can discuss village affairs without being overviewed by the male villagers. But this must be done with the approval of the men.

A third theme is that of entrepreneurship, and especially the role that entrepreneurs may play in community building. Instead of living on the rent of her inheritance, Jean Paget puts it to good use to make Willstown a better place.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0049871|title=A Town Like Alice (1956)
*imdb title|id=0081949|title=A Town Like Alice (1981)