Jennifer Morton is living in England in 1950. She and her family are still experiencing the difficult conditions that occurred after WWII. Carl Zlinter is a displaced person, who has emigrated from Czechoslovakia to rural Victoria, Australia, where he must work for two years in a lumber camp in exchange for his passage. He is not allowed to practice medicine, though there is an immense need for doctors in the remote countryside. When Jennifer visits her relatives in Australia, the two meet, confront a crisis together, develop a relationship, and encounter obstacles to remaining together.

The descriptions of the Australian “far country” are beautifully rendered. There is a stark contrast between life in England and life in Australia. England is still recovering from the war, while Australia has become a prosperous land of opportunity. However, the “new Australians” are unable to contribute in their fields of expertise. This is shown via a talented artist and the doctor working in the lumber camps. The law states that the doctor must attend three years of training in Australia, and, of course, a displaced person is unlikely to be able to afford such retraining.

At the heart of this story is a romance, but it is not syrupy or melodramatic. It contains social commentary, but not in an overpowering manner. There is a rather long lead-in to the main thrust of the storyline, but once it reaches Australia, it shines. The main characters are likeable and believable. It is always a compliment to say I wish it were longer.
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First published in 1952 shortly after Shute himself had emigrated to Australia, 'The Far Country' is essentially a romance but not simply one between a man and a woman but also with a new country.

In this book Shute contrasts the privations of post-war England with its continuing rationing and grey winter weather with the very real opportunities that were available in Australia. He does this through the eyes of a young English woman, Jennifer Morton, who travels to the country to visit some distant relatives and a Czech doctor, Carl Zlinter, who as part of a post-War resettlement plan has emigrated to Australia and is serving his assigned first two years in a lumber camp to the west of Melbourne.

In my opinion Shute is a gifted writer who includes a good deal of relevant and interesting details to the locations and characters in his stories but in this particular tale you can also plainly see his disenchantment with the 'old country'. In contrast Australia seems to be some form of utopia to his readers where all you need to succeed is to work hard. In particular he seems to blame the new Socialist government and its recently formed National Health Service for all its problems. All of which seems a little simplistic.

I found this as interesting if rather predictable tale that was nowhere near as enjoyable as the previous book by the author that I read, 'Pied Piper'. ( )

4.5 Stars.

World War Two has ended, but rations are still on in England, and life in Europe seems to have no opportunities left, particularly for the young. Jennifer Morton is one of those young Londoners, working away at a job that has no future and a life that seems unpromising, but a twist of fate provides her with an opportunity to visit Australia, and everything in her life changes.

Carl Zlinter is a Czechoslovakian doctor who emigrated to Australia after the war. As an immigrant, he is not allowed to practice medicine in his new country, and he must work a two-year stint as a laborer with a logging concern. He isn’t allowed to practice, but his skills as a doctor are much needed in the remote area in which he is working, so his fellow workers come to know him as a man who can be called on when first aid is needed.

Jenny and Carl meet, but as might be expected, the situation is not ideal, nor is it easy to imagine what future they might have together, given the circumstances they are in. Just the kind of love story that Nevil Shute is so very good at writing!

I was caught up in this tale from beginning to end. It is obvious that Shute, himself a new Australian, was enamored of his adopted land and distressed at the direction he felt his home country of England was taking. This is Australia the way I would have imagined it at this time, and I’m sure it was a land of plenty and a land of opportunity after the ravages of a World War. The descriptions of both the land and its people are part of what pulls you into the novel immediately. The contrasts he draws between Australia and England make it all the more enticing.

Another down in my quest to read all of Shute’s novels. This one earns a thumbs up.
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In Australia Jane and Jack Dorman own a prosperous sheep farm, or station. For the past few years most of the money they earned has gone to pay off loans and debts, but now, for the first time the wool money is all theirs, and its been a good year for selling wool. But Jane is worried about her aunt back in England. Aunt Ethel was the only family member who supported her in her decision to marry an Australian and leave England, they still exchange letters, and in Ethel’s latest she mentioned little things that begin to worry Jane.

Jane is right to worry. The story moves to England and Jennifer, Ethel’s granddaughter, receives a telephone call from her mother asking her to check in on Ethel. When Jennifer does she discovers that Ethel is suffering from starvation and malnutrition. She has been hiding her lack of money from her family and hasn’t asked anyone for help, instead she was selling the furniture and pawning whatever valuables she had.

Back in Australia the Dorman’s decide to send Ethel a cheque, but the money comes too late, Ethel knows she is dying and insists that Jennifer take the money and use it herself to leave England and travel to Australia.

Okay, I’ve already spent longer than I wanted recapping the plot, and I haven’t even gotten to Carl Zlinter yet. But you get how a rough idea of how the story starts out.

And those early chapters set in England are utter misery. Wonderfully written, but just plain miserable. Everyone is still living off ration cards, there is no meat, the damn socialists are in power and no one is happy. And the National Health system, which has just been introduced, is destroying the medical profession. People showing up at the doctors asking questions and getting forms filled out! As though they deserved a responsive doctor.

I’m sure there was plenty of hardship in Britain in the years after WWII, but I think that blaming it on the “socialists” and the nationalisation of the health service is part of Shute’s anti-government spiel. Throughout the novel he seems very much of the opinion that if you work hard you will get rewards, and therefore you’ll deserve them. If you don’t get ahead in life then you haven’t been working hard.

His example of this is Australia, where is you get your head down and do the hard graft you’ll be rich. But even there the government is sticking its nose in, making foreign people do 3 years of college in order have their medical qualifications recognised when anyone can see that they’re good hard working people!

But Australia is there to contrast with the grey, wet, cold, crowded, miserable England that Jennifer leaves. Australia is full of open spaces and opportunity. Its warm and sunny, and there is so much land there for the taking.

Yeah, lets not mention the original inhabitants shall we? Because they don’t get a mention at all in this apart from one comment about “blacks” not being in the frame in a postcard. Well, they don’t get to be in frame in this book either.

So, for me, there are a lot of problems with this novel. It’s almost innocent, in a way, how it seems to believe that hard work is enough. But it is a damaging attitude to have, because it ignore the fact that if you start out life with even a little bit of money then you are way ahead of those in poverty, and for many people no amount of hard work will get them out of poverty.

I’m writing a lot about this because it is a huge part of The Far Country, or at least it seemed to take up a huge amount in my reading of it.

There is also the romance, and the wonderful writing. It’s a very easy read, Shute has a very flowing style that just lets the reader keep on reading, even if they don’t agree with everything he says. I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on Shute, it was the times he lived and wrote in, but for a modern reader I think there are a lot of issues with the book. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book, or at least, I still enjoyed parts of it, but I don’t think it is one I’d be recommending to a lot of people. ( )

Mildly interesting slice-of-life, with romance. There's very little point or crises in it - the inquest ends easily, the mystery of Charlie...isn't much of a mystery, and it's pretty clear what will happen soon with Jennifer at the end. The book ends before things are settled, but after the arc is well established. I was wondering at the beginning if she'd end up with the ranch hand or the DP doctor, but again the pattern was established quickly and the rest was just working it out - it was very obvious that there would be at least one romance coming to fruition. It does make me want to check some histories about England in this period - was the rationing really that bad after the war? Most of the stories I've read talk about meat and butter and so on coming back pretty soon after the war. Enjoyable - not a favorite, but worth reading and rereading. There is some _gorgeous_ description of Australia - landscape, animals, towns, houses and all. It's clearly meant to contrast with the equally well-drawn depiction of (parts of) England as grey, rainy, cold, grim, dirty and shabby. ( )