Beyond the Black Stump

There's no place like home.

I have been looking forward to reading Shute for some time because many of my GR friends seem to love his work. We don't appear to be a match for a variety of reasons. This despite some elegant writing, particularly in the very last chapter.

Briefly, Stanton, the main character whose life this is built around, is a small-minded prig. Not so small-minded as his parents, but small-minded nonetheless. His eyes are opened when, after he earns his geology degree at Stanford, he is sent to live abroad to lead a team searching for oil. His horizons expand, but he is still focused on putting up what he sees as a respectable front at all times. His definition of respectability was defined by his parents and other show more denizens of a small, remote town in Oregon.

This was written in 1956, and I do try to judge books and their characters through the lenses of people who lived at the time, but even by that metric, this book is painfully racist. It is clear that Shute had a sense that some sorts of racism were bad, but most sorts were just fine by him. For instance, we are meant ot see that Stanford is a modern and decent man because he is willing to overlook the clearly horrifying fact that the woman he "loves" (more on that in the next paragraph) is "illegitimate" and has on her father's side "half-caste" half-siblings. (There is a lot of other offensive language around race here. Shute refers to grown people as black boys, pics, and yellow girls, among other things, and uses the N word once.) We are reminded repeatedly that we should expect that there would be children of mixed race because when men came to claim land in Western Australia to build ranches, there were no White women. It is actually said a couple of times (in different words) that once they are able to build a proper town, there will be White women, and then we won't have to worry about that pesky race-mixing. Also, apparently meant to be a sign of decency, the father in question has his "half-caste" children working on his ranch where they call him "Sir" or "Boss". His White children have world-class educations and are professionals who live in luxury in London and Perth, and eventually as a prospective housewife in Oregon. Notably, none of the Black or multi-racial people depicted are defined in the book other than by the work they do for the White people or to highlight their unreliability, which it is hinted is to be expected. There is a teacher living out in this remote frontier, an old, drunk judge. His forward-thinkingness is to be gleaned from the fact that he educates the White, Black, and mixed children. The White children get a liberal education, and the Black and mixed kids are taught the work they need to pursue trades. (The mixed kids get training for more skilled labor deployment than the Black kids, of course.) There is more I can say about this, but not without spoilers. It was all very ugly, and Shute did not see it that way. It is worth noting that the White Australian ranchers were mostly malingering drunks, but Shute makes clear that this was to be expected since they were Irish. The only White men who were not malingering drunks were a Brit who had emigrated, and the American MC Stanton and his crew of other Americans.

Also notable, this is supposed to be a romance, and let me tell you, Shute clearly knows nothing of romantic love. Stanton thinks Mollie is a swell girl (there is a real Wally Cleaver feel to this character). Mollie likes that Stanton is a nice guy, gives her American magazines and homemade ice cream, and describes small-town life in Oregon, which sounds like Oz to this woman who has never left Australia and rarely even been out of the Outback. She is dazzled. After he proposes (there has never been so much as a date, let alone physical contact), she kisses him "with great fondness." Be still, my heart. He then starts to call her "honey." That is it. All the romance is right there. Otherwise, their interactions can be best described as right neighborly. There is also supposed to be a romantic triangle. There is not.

Another note: I like slow stories with little plot, but this makes Middlemarch seem like The Fast and the Furious. There are endless passages describing going into a house, washing diapers, and chatting about sheep to no end at all. And the digressions do not build the shallow characters. As mentioned, Stanton is like Wally Cleaver, and Mollie is Kate Hepburn as the feisty she's-not-like-other-girls woman she played in almost every film she appeared in. I certainly don't know a thing about Staton's inner self, other than he wants his parents to love him and for others to see him as above reproach. Of Mollie, I only know that she is a rugged individualist who likes Oldsmobiles.

I may try another Shute book, but I also may not. show less

Published in 1956, Beyond the Black Stump is a story of a cross-cultural romance between American Stanton Laird and Australian Mollie Regan. Stanton works for an American oil company. He takes an assignment in Western Australia to explore for drilling sites. After initially touching base at his company’s headquarters in Perth, he and his colleagues camp out in the bush near the Regan family’s million-acre ranch.

Mollie has seen many films that romanticize American life but finds out that reality does not quite match her expectations, and Stanton gradually comes to appreciate the “simple” but hard-working life on the ranch. The book’s primary theme addresses technological advancement and urban sophistication versus show more self-reliance and connection to the land. It spurs the reader to ponder the nature of living a fulfilled life.

Shute is skilled at character development and portraying people that feel authentic. The detailed descriptions of station life, caring for sheep, and the rhythms of rural existence create a vivid sense of place. The structure moves from America to Australia and back to America, which enables Shute to portray how history and environment shape values. I enjoyed it as a thoughtful exploration of what constitutes genuine happiness. show less

Rather a disappointment. Nevil Shute has become one of my favorite authors, but it appears that he lost his way in his last couple of books. It would seem that in his later years, he became so infatuated by his adopted home country of Australia that he couldn't see any of its faults. To support this infatuation, he seems to have had a need to villainize England (A Far Country) and the U.S. ( Beyond the Black Stump) so as to make himself feel better about his having emigrated to the Antipodes.

This is not a half-bad story, actually, just not up to the standards I hold for Shute after having read ten or so of his other works. This one is set in a "station" (sheep ranch) in Western Australia. The Regan brothers, who had been active in the show more Irish Rebellion back after WWI, had managed to escape to Australia and set up a "station". There was rather a large and "colorful" family gathered at the station. One of the brothers, Uncle Tom had once gone off to Perth and come back married to a former Scottish barmaid. Eventually, the other brother, Pat "married" the Scottish barmaid, and Uncle Tom was ok with that because Pat had given him a relic of the Irish Revolution, some special gun that had once belonged to one of their revolutionary leaders. The brothers, it seems, also had a fondness for some of the aboriginals around, in particular "The Countess". So the station was populated by half-caste children as well as the eleven or so children of the Scottish barmaid. Added into this strange mix is "the Judge", a well-educated drunk who acts as the school master for all the station's children of all sizes and colors. The men all liked to sit around of an evening swilling rum neat. But the former barmaid knew how to keep them in check. Something like that. It all makes for a rather "interesting" family life.

So, an American geologist, Stanton Laird, shows up to hunt around to see if there might be oil under the land. Naturally, he falls for Pat and the barmaid's daughter, Mollie. Complicating this is a young English immigrant, David Cope, who is trying to raise sheep on the neighboring station, a station with little apparent access to water. He also has designs on Mollie.

It makes for interesting reading, learning about sheep raising, oil prospecting and drilling, the complications of international romance, and so forth. The marring factor is that we learn that all of the U.S. is a kind of vapid Ozzie-and-Harriet land and that Americans are way more racist than Australians. Um, I don't think so. Shute did his homework regarding oil prospecting and sheep raising, but the things he says and appears to believe about the U.S. show a serious lack of research on his part. A rather sad way to mar an otherwise GoodRead. show less

The way the author explored the notion of how different cultures judge outsiders made for a terrific read and some pretty humorous situations. The ways the author was able to illustrate the difference between progress and development was intriguing too. The story of the taming of the kangaroo mouse must have started out true somewhere! The picture of that creature and it's master is too detailed to be made up! Somwhere, at some time there must have been a man who really did mince up bugs and cheese and teach a kangaroo mouse to ride around on his shoulder!

This is a slice-of-(unusual)-life story - young man from the Pacific Northwest goes to outback Australia on a job, meets a lovely girl and falls in love; she's partly in love with him and largely in love with the image she has of America, from magazines and movies. The differences in attitudes - what's a big deal and what simply isn't - is nicely done. And of course the Outback descriptions are neat. Lovely ending, too - rounds things off beautifully. Happy endings for all! A fun read, though not one of my favorite Shutes.

I love Nevil Shute and always find it a surprise that not more people are aware of his works. From the blurb: Stanton Laird comes to the Australian outback to search for oil. There he meets and falls in love with Mollie. However cultural differences between Stanton and Mollie's world force the two lovers to make difficult decisions.

I really enjoyed this book, and normally and hint of a love story and you won't see me for dust, but Shute has a way of dragging me into the plot so I don't even notice. A story about the complexities of human nature and how people from different backgrounds interact as well as the trials they can face, Shute really nails down the conflicting emotions and you can see things from all viewpoints. I suppose the show more only downside was that at the time of writing the book Shute had emigrated to Australia and doesn't really look back on the UK with very much fondness, he was a staunch opposer of socialism but I am sure that even in post war Britain things would not have been as bleak as the pictures he presents.

Maybe not the best novel to be introduced to the author but certainly a good read. show less

I am not really into romance novels and this one though dated is pretty bland. I find Shute pretty detailed when placing a scene in Australia but I find his descriptions of the USA pretty bland.

There was no driving force in this book, Though the writing was decent the plot was pretty predictable except for a bit of a twist in the last pages.