The Far Country is the second of my recently acquired Nevil Shute novels, and I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s a romance, certainly; spunky English lass meets spunky Czechoslovakian immigrant in rural Australia. The setting is post-WWII, at a time when rationing is still in force in England and wool is finally beginning to command a good price in Australia. England is presented as a drab, hopeless place, with nothing to attract the ambitious or industrious (and Shute notes several times that the socialists are in power), while Australia is bustling, prosperous, and very much the Land of Opportunity. The characters are well-drawn and interesting, as always with Shute, and I enjoyed sharing their lives for a while; but I can’t help feeling that the plot is driven more by heavy-handed social commentary than anything else. It seems to be telling the English socialists, “Wake up, folks! You’d better change your tune or we’re going to lose our best and brightest to other shores.”
In the book’s favor, all this is the result of subsequent contemplation. The first chapter was a bit slow, but after that I was drawn in and couldn’t help but be carried along by the narrative. And although on first reading No Highway seems the more substantial book, I’ve a suspicion that The Far Country will be the more rewarding on re-reading. Really, the book’s main problem is that its setting begs comparison with A Town Like Alice, and it can’t help but look a little pale and wan in such robust company.
The View from the Foothills 
There’s a somewhat recent TV miniseries of this starring Michael York, but I’ve heard that the adaptation was utterly clueless — they write in a villain who’s trying to ruin their farm. 😦
I think one of my favorite Shute Quotes is from this book. The couple goes into town to take in an art exhibition, and the featured artist is “a primitive, unable to paint or to draw, and praised as a genius by people who ought to have known better.” 🙂
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Yes, and I should have mentioned that sequence, because it was delightful.
I should also have mentioned the role of “New Australians”–immigrants from various non-Commonwealth countries who were generally grossly underemployed because the “Old Australians” didn’t trust their level of training. Shute clearly loved Australia, but he wasn’t white-washing it either.
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Yeah, well, he did move there and all, so he must’ve.
I also forgot to mention that I thought his depiction of British war rationing was more than fair — rations weren’t ended until 1953, early summer, I believe. Prior to that, one egg and two ounces of meat, per person, per month. Ridiculous. (Didn’t help that us Yanks were pouring money on our former enemies, and not so much on our allies.)
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I have read this book more than 10 times over the years, and still find it a great book. I seldom read a book the second time, but there was something about this one that keeps calling me back. I was probablly 10 years old the first time I read it (I stole it from my big sisters collection and more than 50 years later I still have it and never told her I took it) and that was maybe the facination with it.
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