When I told one friend that I was going to blog about A Town Like Alice, she said, "It's one of my favorite books." When I mentioned this to another friend, she said, "I HAD to read it in high school." Then (same day in fact) I was glancing through a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and felt pretty depressed because I have only read about 50 of 'em. Then on page 519, what did I see? A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute! It was a sign! Sooooo....
It is a difficult book to describe; it is a romance between an English woman and an Australian. It is a World War II novel about English women as prisoners of war with no prison camp to be in and an Australian prisoner of war who is tortured because he stole soap and chickens from the Japanese for these wandering women. It is also a Cinderella story of Willstown in the Australian Outback. Jean Paget, a former prisoner of war and an English secretary, is the Fairy Godmother to this nothing little town. She has an inheritance and she is going to turn Willstown into something, with greengrocers, jobs to keep the girls in town (so the local cowboys or ringers as they are called, will have someone to marry and then they will stay on the cattle stations), and a swimming pool, just like Alice Springs.
I am crazy about this book because I love fixer-up stories, whether they are about Cinderella, old houses or in this case - a town. I also love to read women in jeopardy stories and being a prisoner of war is a pretty big jeopardy. But most of all - I love romances... How many guys do you know would risk death to steal a chicken and soap for a gal he met on the way from one prison camp to another? There is so much to like, but I'd better stop before I give anymore away. Oh, another friend read this book before she took a trip to Australia and she said it added to her enjoyment of her visit. Soooo...three friends and I encourage you to read A Town Like Alice.
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