The Far Country (Vintage Classics)
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Review
Pleasant reading and a new setting for a less important story than Shute has ??done of late. The background is chiefly Australia, not far from Melbourne, though the plot picks up characters in London, playing back and forth between the two. Evidently the lure of the Australian foothills, the great reaches of country that supplied pasturage for the sheep stations- forests for the lumber camps, have captured his imagination in the two years he has lived out there. He tells his story on the level of the first and second generation Australians, with some of the "new" Australians, D.P.'s working out their passage and their time in today's version of indenture. How Jennifer Morton, product of the new post war London social mores, achieved the opportunity to try her wings in Australia provides the rather tenuous thread of plot, as she comes out to "visit" unknown relatives, plans to find a job and stay on- and meets a refugee Czech, working in a lumber camp not far away, and using his skill as a doctor and surgeon despite the restrictions on his practising. Here is a fresh and new portrait of a country, still unknown territory for most readers. Here a story that follows more or less predictable lines for a warm and heartening tale. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A dramatic romance set in the remote wilds of the Australian outback
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This could well be the best of Nevil Shute's 21 or so stories, which is saying something.
First published in 1952, the book contrasts, in a very human way, on the one hand the misery and privations of post-war England with, on the other hand, the glowing and very real opportunities that are available with directed effort in Australia, as seen through the eyes of, respectively, the young English girl Jennifer Morton and the rather older Czech doctor Carl Zlinter, who has emigrated to Australia and is serving his assigned first two years in a lumber camp in a pleasant country part of Victoria, roughly at a distance to the west of Melbourne.
So the story has worn well, perhaps especially so when read in the conditions of present-day England !
Nevil Shute is in my opinion a great story-teller, who has the gift of including a great deal of relevant and interesting detail of the localities, personalities and action in a story that is fully believable and really gripping, without any waste of words. All these features are fully present in this book 'The Far Country'.
To say the book is un-put-down-able is not really an exaggeration, because the book draws the reader to want to see how the plot and sub-plots will work out, and the informed and interesting detail which characterises Nevil Shute's books is fully present in this one.
But don't just read this little review ... read the book. You will not be disappointed.
First published in 1952, the book contrasts, in a very human way, on the one hand the misery and privations of post-war England with, on the other hand, the glowing and very real opportunities that are available with directed effort in Australia, as seen through the eyes of, respectively, the young English girl Jennifer Morton and the rather older Czech doctor Carl Zlinter, who has emigrated to Australia and is serving his assigned first two years in a lumber camp in a pleasant country part of Victoria, roughly at a distance to the west of Melbourne.
So the story has worn well, perhaps especially so when read in the conditions of present-day England !
Nevil Shute is in my opinion a great story-teller, who has the gift of including a great deal of relevant and interesting detail of the localities, personalities and action in a story that is fully believable and really gripping, without any waste of words. All these features are fully present in this book 'The Far Country'.
To say the book is un-put-down-able is not really an exaggeration, because the book draws the reader to want to see how the plot and sub-plots will work out, and the informed and interesting detail which characterises Nevil Shute's books is fully present in this one.
But don't just read this little review ... read the book. You will not be disappointed.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was written when Shute was disenchanted with England's food shortages, rationing and the national health service. Autralia, by contrast was a Utopia, a Land of Opportunity. This is what the book's about. But Nevil Shute's genius was in telling apparently simple stories about apparently ordinary people. Apparently. But the plots are clever and the people are quiet heroes - not in superman style, but in mundane situations like nursing a dying grandmother; or risking imprisonment to save a man's life. A look into the past, and a great read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant!
Sweet old-fashionned story. Each page drew me in, I felt immersed in the story very quickly after opening the book and never got bored at ay time. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Cha Cha
Vintage Shute indeed
This book seems to have attracted quite a range of opinions. Without re-hashing previous views, or indeed the plot itself: downtrodden English girl goes to Australia after... Read more
Published 1 month ago by BigJohn
Shute adopts bile and rose-tinted spectacles
Apart from the ludicrous black pessimism of On the Beach, this book did more to put me off Shute than any other. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Tom Holt
Good stuff. Shute at his best.
Three main characters, all fighting the wilderness. Lots of repressed emotions and little bits of confusion, but united by a mutual wish to achieve a difficult and risky job. Read more
Published on 27 July 2001 by a2025398
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