Reading Nevil Shute's ""A Town Like Alice"" is like watching your favorite boxer up against a much bigger opponent, hoping the ace up your guy's sleeve will pull him through. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. You watch your man take a few blows, but you've put money on the fact that they've got what it takes to survive, to win.
""A Town Like Alice"" starts off quietly. Noel Strachan, a lawyer in England, helps a dying Scotsman write his will, leaving a considerable fortune to a distant niece. Years later, Mr. Strachan finds the niece, Jean Paget, and informs her of her inheritance. They soon become good friends. Jean recounts her experience as a prisoner of the Japanese in Malaya during World War II. Through her telling of this story, Mr. Strachan learns of her remarkable courage, leadership and perseverance.
Jean ends up deciding to take some of her inherited money to the town in Malaya, Kuala Telang, where she had been imprisoned, wanting to build the women of the town a well out of thanks for their kindness that helped Jean and her party to survive.
While in Kuala Telang, Jean learns that Joe, a friend of hers who was crucified for stealing food for her and her party, actually survived. Jean feels very deeply for this man, and thus goes directly to his home country of Australia to find him. Unbeknownst to Jean, Joe has taken his life savings and flown to England to find her.
It is through her weekly correspondence with Mr. Strachan that Jean discovers this and decides to wait in Australia for Joe to return. While waiting she visits places in Australia that Joe had told her about while they were together in Malaya. In visiting the desolate outback towns, she finds that they all make her feel lonely with the exception of Alice Springs, a lively place that reminds her of home.
Eventually Joe returns to Australia and he and Jean come together. The two move to his hometown of Willstown, but unfortunately Jean finds the place unbearable. Using her unstoppable resolve to realize her dreams of living in ""‘a town like Alice,"" she attempts to transform the bleak little town, opening businesses meant to attract young women to work there.
With an increasing female population, the cowboys of the town are more inclined to stay in Willstown and have a family. From this barren ghost-town springs a beautiful place to live, turning Jean into a local hero.
Joe falls for Jean all over again, and the pair decide to get married. Mr. Strachan, who had been quietly narrating this all, is content knowing he helped Jean to use her money for a noble purpose.
This could have been a fantastic, powerful ending for this traditional war romance. Every loose end is tied up, and the main characters live happily ever after in their booming outback town. But to the reader's dismay, Mr. Strachan continues his narrative, elaborating on the dangers of life in the outback, how the town continues to expand and flourish, as does Jean and Joe's family. This portion is unnecessary to the novel and leaves the reader bored in the home stretch. Luckily, the final three chapters do illustrate just what a brave, intelligent woman Jean is, giving the reader a sense of awe at what challenges people can overcome if they put their hearts into it.
