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 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. ( )

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 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.
( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

This is an interesting view of two people in love who have to bridge the gap between cultures. Despite feeling that 'Western' cultures aren't that different, differences abound.