The Far Country

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. show more 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. show less

Nevil Shute never fails to deliver. At least he hasn't yet failed in the 11 books of his that I read. This wasn't quite so good, perhaps, as some of the previous ones because if felt a bit polemic in parts. But, none-the-less, it was surely a GoodRead.

Much of the story revolves around a "station" in Victoria, southeastern Australia, not too far from Melbourne. A station was a sheep ranch. Jack and Jane Dorman had struggled for quite some time to get situated, but in the past few years (1950 /-), the price of wool was quite good and they finally managed to pay off all their mortgages and had some money left over to throw around. They sent some back to England to their Aunt Ethyl. England's recovery from World War II was slow, and there show more was rather a lot of rationing still. Aunt Ethyl had been the only one in Jane's family who accepted Jack as spouse worthy back in the day. Aunt Ethyl was not faring well with the restricted life in England and was essentially starving herself to death, not willing to bother her children with her care. Her grand daughter, Jennifer Morton, hears of her problems and shows up to pitch in a bit to help "Granny" back on her feet. Just before Granny dies, she signs over the check from Jack and Jane Dorman so that Jennifer could go off to Australia to have a better life. Maybe things in Australia are like in the good old days in England, Granny thought, when everyone had nice garden parties, no worries about having enough to eat, and plenty of servants to do their bidding. Ah, the good old days.

Jennifer went to Australia, and very quickly felt at home. While out and about with Jack Dorman, they come upon a logging accident, in which one man has his foot trapped under a log (or bull dozer?) and another has his skull bashed in. They can't get the local doctor, so ask "Splinter", one of the loggers to help out. It seems that "Splinter", actually Carl Zlinter, had been a doctor in Europe before the war, and had come out to Australia as a displaced person. His medical credentials weren't recognized in Australia, so he was working as a logger. But, given his medical knowledge, he was the go-to guy to patch up folks injured in logging accidents. So, he amputates the foot of the guy trapped under the bulldozer (or log) and trephines the skull of the other guy to move the skull bones away from the brain tissue. The only person at the site with adequately clean hands is Jennifer. In addition, Jenny's bright as a penny ("her equal would be hard to find") and immediately becomes an asset to the surgical procedures. Naturally, Jenny and Carl slowly develop a relationship.

But a bit later, Jennifer's mother dies and she has to go back to England to keep house for her father. Will she and Carl ever get back together, one in Australia without job prospects and one in England with a grieving and overworked father? Well, read the book and find out.

The only blemish for me in this book was Shute's harping on how awful things were in England and how good they were in Australia. I know that England paid a high price during WWII and it took them a while to rebuild their economy, but I'm not convinced things were all that bad in 1951 or so when this book was supposed to have taken place. Then too, it seems that what Shute was really bemoaning was that rich people were less rich for a while after the war. They no longer could have a bunch of servants. For the regular Brits, I doubt 1950 was much worse than had been the case in 1920, when they were working in the ruling class sweat shops or being servants for the ruling class. But what do I know? I was only 6 when I lived in England in 1951, so perhaps I was too young to notice the deprivation. I certainly didn't feel any deprivation during my year there. Shute also has only scorn for the National Health Service. It seems that, like our current GOP, he didn't think poor people deserved to have health care and we'd all be better off if they just died. I dunno, I believe my brother broke a collar bone or ribs, or both in 1951, and the NHS patched him up just fine. Then, when I lived in England again in 1974, I was well served by the National Health Service when my daughter was born and when I stabbed myself with a piece of broken glass and bled all over my little closet of a lab.

Anyway, despite the polemical blemishes, this book, like every other one Shute wrote, is well worth one's time. show less

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. show more 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. show less

The first two thirds of this book were a 5 star read for me. It contrasts the flourishing Australian economy (particularly food production) with the austerity of post-World War II Britain. The characters include a mix of native-born Australians, English immigrants to Australia from decades earlier, and Eastern European displaced persons working out two-year commitments in labor camps. Toward the end, the focus narrowed to a romance between a young English visitor and a Czech doctor working out a two-year stint in a lumber camp. I’m not sure if the book’s open ending was intentional or if Shute was just stuck in a corner he wrote himself into.

The Far Country - Nevil Shute ****

Nevil Shute has won a place as one of my favourite authors since I picked up On the Beach a few years ago. His books don’t seem to be much publicised these days which is a shame, especially when you consider the success he had during the 60’s and 50’s. I know that they can appear a little dated but that just adds to the beauty of his world. Here you won’t find and sort of sex or gratuitous violence, even though he is unafraid to confront serious issues that were relevant at that period. It is almost like stepping back in time to world that probably never existed, but we all think did.

The Far Country was written way back in 1952 and set in 1950, we follow a young girl called Jennifer Morton who show more lives in a very harsh London, a city still reeling from the aftermath of a very hard war. At the beginning she is summoned to her grandmother’s home and is shocked to see the poverty she has been allowed to live in. With a pension that has dried up and seemingly lost in the system, she has been allowed to practically starve to death. Just before her inevitable demise the grandmother receives some money from relatives in Australia, and it is her dying wish that Jennifer should visit the ‘Far Country’ before she settles down in Britain. After discussions with her parents Jennifer decides to visit Australia and stay with her extended family whilst experiencing their way of life, and sets off for the outback. Whilst there she meets a foreign doctor and falls in love, but will she be able to adapt to this new life or will she return home to her place of birth?

From the description this novel sounds like something out of a Mills and Boon paperback, but it really is so much more than that. Shute himself immigrated to Australia and left behind a fledgling NHS & a socialist government, he really doesn’t hold anything back and the contempt he feels for his old country drips from every page. The food rationing/shortages and weather paint a very bleak picture of what life was like for the ordinary man and he contrasts this with Australia being the land of plenty, a new life and a new beginning. Several smaller themes are entangled throughout such as belonging, class & loyalty.

Some people may view The Far Country as a fairly vicious attack on everything Shute turned his back on in post war Britain, others may see it as a fairly simple love story. Personally I see it as an adventure in a new land where normal people are forced into less ordinary circumstances (a theme very evident in most of his books) and have to deal with not just their emotions but the environment around them.

Although not my favourite Shute book it is still recommendable, although I think ‘On the Beach’ & ‘Trustee from the Toolroom’ are a better place to discover the author. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less