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Dark Muse
02-28-2011, 04:30 AM
This is a book that I would not normally have thought to pick up and read of my own accord. I was lead to it when I group I belong to selected it, and I ended up liking it far more than I would have thought for it is a bit outside my usual reading interests yet I found to be a captivating story.

One of the things which I think works so well in the favor of this book is the narration style. It is told from the point of view of an old man and attorney, whom gives the story of one of his clients, a truly remarkable woman. There is a certain frankness and straightforwardness within the narrative voice which acutally works very well for the story. The story is told in this abrupt manner, which gives the reader a vivid picture, and speaks to the heart of the reader, without the excesses of unnecessarily long descriptions. This also makes the story read along very quickly and keeps you reading.

I am not one often to go for romances and yet I think in part because of the matter-of-fact way in which the story is told it did not come off as being sappy, or obnoxious, nor did it feel cliched, but it had me routing for them. And how can you not love Joe Harman?

The only thing that was a bother to me was the way in which the author made repeated references to Alligators while the story was set in Australia, which does not have Alligators. I can only take this down to the fact that perhaps at the time in which the book was written they did not have as clear of an understanding of the distinction between Crocodiles and Alligators. But that does not detract from the story, just a personal pet peeve of mine because of the inaccuracy.

dfloyd
02-28-2011, 01:43 PM
The dramatization, I believe, has greater impact than the book. The narrator is the actor who played the butler on Upstairs, Downstairs. Part of the story takes place in Japanese occupied territory so this might be where alligators are referred to.

Dark Muse
02-28-2011, 01:56 PM
The dramatization, I believe, has greater impact than the book. The narrator is the actor who played the butler on Upstairs, Downstairs. Part of the story takes place in Japanese occupied territory so this might be where alligators are referred to.

In the book they kept talking about Alligators in Australia. Because Jean used to work for a company that made things out of Alligator skin and when she moved to Australia she set up in her own factory to make products to sell in England and a couple of the men in Australia would bring her "alligator" skins which they caught there.

But the big Salt Water Crocs were once misidentified as Alligators, I read there is a river in Australia that was named Alligator River because of this false identification.

prendrelemick
03-02-2011, 04:07 PM
You might also like "The Far Country" by the same author. Obviously a different story , but it has a similar feel. Nevil Shute does people so well.

Emil Miller
03-02-2011, 04:41 PM
Yes Nevile Shute was one of a number of post-war British writers who, like Eric Ambler, Eric Linklater and A.J.Cronin could tell a good story.
How the hell did we get to Martin Amis?

Dark Muse
03-02-2011, 04:47 PM
You might also like "The Far Country" by the same author. Obviously a different story , but it has a similar feel. Nevil Shute does people so well.

I will have to look into that.

Emil Miller
03-04-2011, 04:36 PM
I knew there had been a film made of it but not a remake. Here's the ending to the original starring Peter Finch and Virginia McKenna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNrFV2FLnRY