The Malaysian people, too, are treated with great respect by the author. I found the story-line with the sergeant really touching. Some of the language used to describe them is problematic, but they aren't all stereotypes and villains. It's well paced, the characters are well drawn, the romance is subtle and believable and for a novel written in the 1950's (with the war so recent) the Japanese soldiers are very sensitively depicted. It's a survival story, a wartime drama, and this main section of the story is gripping and immediate. Taken prisoner with a group of other women and children, but miles from the nearest prison camp, the women are forced to walk from place to place, attended by Japanese guards but with no real plan for where they will settle. A Town like Alice is the story of Jean Paget, an English girl who is working as a typist in Malaysia during WW2 when the Japanese invade.
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