A Town Like Alice

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Nevil Shute's 1950 novel tells the story of Jean Paget as a prisoner of war in Malaya during World War II and then her return to Malaya after the war, where she discovers something that leads her on the search for romance and to a small outback community in Australia. Adapted into a 1956 film and a 1981 miniseries.

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Contains such tropes as:

• A Friend in Need : Joe, the Old Japanese Soldier as well, the village headman who takes them in.
• Aussies With Artillery
• Beau Geste : Joe ends up crucified for Jeane. He survives by manipulating the Japanese officer's odd version of Honor Before Reason.
• Blithe Spirit : Jeane Paget.
• The Caretaker : Joe in Malaya, Noel in England.
• City Slicker : Jeane, both in Malaya and in the Outback.
• Cowboy : Joe does this for a living.
• Florence Nightingale Effect : Sort of, Joe isn't a doctor but he is The Caretaker.
• Going Native : The women live out the war by picking rice in a Malayan village.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy : Noel does this knowing he is to old for Jeane. Joe does this at first thinking Jeane to be married.
• Land Down Under
• The Lost Woods : The Malayan Jungle.
• ObstructiveBureaucrats : The Japanese Army.
• Officer and a Gentleman : The first Japanese officer they meet.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy : The sadistic Japanese commandant is obsessed with being this.
• Rancher: Joe Bannock didn't own it til the end.
• Spirited Young Lady : Jean Paget.
• Upperclass Twit : The rubber plantation owner's wife who only thinks it necessary to learn enough Malayan to give orders to the servants.
• Wasteland Elder : The Malayan headman.
• World War II