Oh my word, what a bonza book! Sorry, had to do that (for those of you who haven’t read this, male lead Joe Harman says “oh my word” and “bonza” in about every other sentence [okay, not every other sentence, but a noticeable amount]).
So, this is one of those books I had completely the wrong idea about. First off, I thought Nevil Shute was a woman. Don’t ask me why. I knew Nevil was a male name. Second, I thought this book would be all about a small town in outback Australia, most likely in Alice Springs itself. It’s not—it’s a lot more sweeping than that. Alice Springs, in fact, is barely in the book. The name references Jean’s eventual desire to build a town like Alice Springs.
I will say that Shute is not intimidated by all that authorly advice to “hook” the reader. Oh no, Shute begins with a lengthy digression about Jean’s ancestors and how the money she eventually inherits gets to her. Luckily, Shute picks up the action pretty soon after.
Once Jean herself came into the picture, the book becomes a lot better. Jean is a tough little cookie, but is so modest that she comes off at first as a normal, not terribly impressive secretary. And then you learn that she was the de facto leader of a group of women and children marched to exhaustion around Malaysia by Japanese soldiers during World War II. And when she inherits her wealth she returns to Malaysia (by herself!) to build a well and then tracks down the man she had fallen in love with who she thought was dead to Australia and then basically single-handedly makes the one-dirt-road Australian outback town of Willstown (where her love interest makes his home) into a viable, bustling place. So, yeah, Jean is no shrinking violet, even if her grandfather had such a low opinion of women that he didn’t want a single lady having complete access to her inheritance until she was thirty-five.
Joe Harman, the love interest, comes off in Malaysia as a lot more daring and rough-and-tumble than he ends up being in Australia. I mean, this guy did get crucified for stealing chickens to feed Jean and her ragtag bunch, which is pretty intense. But then he gets all shy and awkward when Jean catches up to him in Australia and doesn’t think he can/should convince a girl to return to the barren wilderness he ranches so doesn’t even try. Jean has to be the one to step up and tell him she will go back to Willstown and she will make it livable. Plus, all the “oh my words.” This is shallow, but I want my Australian outback men to be a bit more…manly. A bit more Hugh Jackman. Joe Harman was almost there, but not quite. I think because Shute really wanted to make an impressive female protagonist (which he did) so he didn’t want the main male to steal her thunder.
And now let’s talk about the racism. This book is, hands down, racist. I was actually impressed that the Japanese weren’t painted as uniformly awful, though none of the sympathetic Japanese got names and there was some of that “the white man will never understand the Oriental mind” bullshit. The real racism involved the Aboriginals. Not only is Joe’s nickname for Jean a racial slur for an Aboriginal (because she was tanned and ragged when he first encountered her) but all the Aboriginals in the story were simple, child-like, unreliable and obedient. Jean feels immensely sorry for a white man who is forced to marry an Aborignal because there aren’t enough white women around. Oh that poor dear! Also, the Aboriginal he marries doesn’t speak and carries a kitten around with her at all times which gives the impression she is not all mentally there. Jean also decides, as if it were completely normal, that her ice cream parlor will have to be segregated. There is no way that the town will accept young white girls serving Aboriginal men.
It is hard for me to tell how much of all this is Shute being racist and how much of it is Shute reflecting the time period. I think there are few books as good for giving a glimpse into outback Australia during the 1950s: the idea of England as “home” for the whites (even if they had never once been there), the need for a woman to keep up her reputation (because no man would let his wife and no woman would let her daughter patronize a business owned by a loose woman), the small-minded notions (businesses open on Sunday are suspect), the high male-to-female population and, of course, the racism towards the Aboriginals. Jean’s acceptance of segregation as practical is horrific to us now (as it should be) but very realistic for the character as a product of her time.
- Goodreads rating – 4.15
- REVIEW – Bonnie