The Far Country by Nevil Shute, for the 1952 Club

The Far Country was published in 1952 and provides a snapshot, albeit a depressing one, of post-war Britain, which made it a good choice for the 1952 Club, hosted this week by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings.

Jack and Angela Dorman have finally paid off the mortgage on their small sheep station in Australia after years of drudgery, reared four children, have money in the bank, and even added electricity two years ago. Jane came from a good English family that was horrified when she fell for an uncouth young officer, promoted from the ranks, during her naval service during WWI. Only her aunt, Ethel Trehearn, supported her choice and was kind to Jack; remembering her kindness thirty-three years later, Jane has sent food parcels to her in England but a recent letter makes her wonder if Ethel is in financial difficulty and how she can help.

She sat in silence for a time. “We couldn’t send her just a little money, Jack,” she said at last. “It would have to be nothing or else quite a lot, as it if was a sort of legacy. Enough to be sure she wouldn’t take it badly. Enough to keep her for a couple of years if she’s in real trouble.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot,” he said. “We’ll do whatever you think right.”

There was a pause. “I feel we kind of owe it to her,” he said presently. “To see her right if she’s in any trouble. We haven’t done so bad together, you and I. It might never have come to anything if she hadn’t backed us up.”

Ethel’s granddaughter Jennifer, an attractive 24-year old with auburn hair, works in an office in London and goes home to Leicester once a month to see her parents. Her father is an overworked doctor and her mother is delicate. Both Jennifer’s brothers were killed in the war. After Ethel has a bad fall, Jennifer travels to Ealing to check on her grandmother, and when she finds the cupboards literally bare, she realizes Ethel has hidden her poverty from her family and starved herself. The check from the Dormans arrives too late to save Ethel but she urges Jennifer to use it to visit Australia and explore the idea of living there permanently.

Has anyone seen this?

Soon after Jennifer reaches her relatives in Australia, she accompanies Jack Dorman to a timber camp and they arrive just as two men have been severely injured in a bulldozer accident. A Czech immigrant, Carl Zlinter, who was a doctor in his own country and is now a New Australian, has been handling small medical issues at the camp. As this is an emergency, he is asked to try to save their lives. Jennifer assists him with two operations, which creates a strong connection between them. However, one of the patients dies, which brings Carl’s unauthorized operation to the attention of the authorities. As his friendship with Jennifer grows, his future is threatened and Jennifer is torn between obligations back home or a life in Australia.

New Australians were non-British migrants to Australia who arrived in the wave of immigration following World War II when the country recognized there was a shortage of labor and the country needed population growth. The term initially referred to newly arrived immigrants, generally refugees, who were expected to eventually become mainstream Australians, and was coined to prevent ethnic slurs/nicknames. Some of these immigrants were Displaced Persons who had been deported from – or obliged to leave – their homelands during the war. The largest numbers of migrants who came to Australia the postwar years under International Refugee Organization (IRO) agreements originated from Poland, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. It appears they had a two-year service requirement.

Shute paints a very dreary picture of 1950s Britain. Jennifer lives in a bed-sitting room in a boarding house, working at the Ministry of Pensions for a modest salary. Although her father is a doctor, her parents have no spare cash, and her grandmother’s income has declined to nothing. Ethel’s electricity has been disconnected because she owes £17 and Jennifer plans to pay for it out of her own savings, which total just £30. Once her grandmother is dead, even her parents think she has more of a future in Australia while Jane tells her there are plenty of jobs in Melbourne. The contrast between the bleak old and promising new world is dramatic, although the Dormans had many years of excruciating work before they became prosperous. The fact that Australia needs doctors but the government did not recognize the value of getting Carl the training he needs to become accredited (instead of working on timber – what was he actually doing? Cutting down trees?) shows the limitations of IRO scheme. Carl is a decent person who worships Jennifer but has his own dignity and pride: he recognizes that the Dormans have been kinder to him than many would be and welcomed him into their home and he repays them by finding something that was important to Jane. I don’t think, in Jennifer’s shoes, I would have made the same choice but Shute does make Australia sound as fascinating as in A Town Called Alice, the only other book of his I have read.

Title: The Far Country
Author: Nevil Shute
Publication: Heineman, hardcover, 1952
Genre: Fiction
Source: Library