I have been intrigued by the list of a 100 book challenge. These are books you should read in your lifetime. I have read several and my book club as a whole has read 68. This is several books for about 10 people. So I have decided to read and reread this list of books and then critique them on this blog.
The list was found on facebook and one of the members of our book club found it because the book we just read was on the list. It is called "A Town Like Alice" by Nevile Shute. This book rests at the number 90 on the list, which is in alphabetical order.
Since this is the book we just finished I will evaluate it as the first book I have read.
" A Town Like Alice" has a copyright of 1950 by William Morrow and Company. It was originally published in Great Britain.
I have to admit the first pages are a challenge as you have no idea of where you are headed in this book. We have a man, Douglas McFadden, speaking to his solicitor about his will. This man we later find out is the uncle to the central character. The narrator is the solicitor, Mr. Strachen. The central character is Jean Paget.
It was questioned at the book club, why did we need this part of the book. Why not just say the man died and the Paget family gets the inheritance and start there. I believe this is done so that you can see that the opinion of the time about women not being able to take care of themselves. The uncle sets up a trust for the girl Jean Paget until she is 31 years of age because he believes women can't handle their affairs without the help of men. When you get into the character of Jean it is almost a laughable matter. With Mr. Strachen agreeing to that matter. Though he wants Douglas to reconsider this trust he refuses.
When we meet Jean she is the last of this line as her brother has died in a prisoner of war camp in Mayala. This book is set in WWII with the Japanese taking over Malaya. We go back to this time when the solicitor finally gets Jean to talk about her experience. She is in Malaya and is part of a group of woman who are captured and are told to walk to the prisoner of war camp but each time they get to a place they are told that they cannot be held there and have to walk to some other place. The leader of this group is Jean Paget. Strong, able to speak the language she is able to make deals and get food and medicine for her travel companions.
There is a love interest and he is presumed dead after the Japanese find out he has stolen chickens to give to the women. He also tells Jean ,who he thinks is married, about a town in Australia called Alice.
So we go from England, Wales, Malaya, Singapore, Malaya, Singapore and finally Australia. Where once again we see the strenght of Jean as she turns a town without even bathrooms into a town like Alice.
It was a very good read and fast once you get into Jean's story. I managed to read it in a week because I put it down for awhile trying to get through the first pages. But then it was two days once I got into Jean's story.
**** out of 5
