The Chequer Board

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I read this book 15 years ago and I still feel nostalgic when I think about it. A great read which leaves you with that nice quiet feeling at the end, in spite of an active story line.

I would also recommend "Round The Bend" by Shute.

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking & Beautifully Written
Review: Nevil Shute's Chequer Board is just what it's title indicates: a checkerboard of characters, places and lives. All are sought out by one man who knew them all only briefly and now, that he is close to death, he wants to "see how they are doing." The novel came out in the late 1940's and refers back to World War II and how four men who survived the crashing of a plane returning from North Africa get on with their lives. Mr. Shute's writing is crisp and lively, his characters come off as very real and each of them touches the reader in his own special way. If you can ever find it, definitely pick up this book and let Nevil Shute take you on a wonderful ride tha you won't soon forget.

Rating:
Summary: Good story, boring lecture
Review: This book tells the story of a man who, with death on the horizon, seeks out three men with whom he shared a hospital room during World War II. The narrative in itself is quite good, even exciting at times, but there is a tendency toward moralizing that in the end suffocates the story completely. A novel posing as a quasi-philosophical discourse on cultural encounters and racial harmony cannot sink to this level of banality and naivete and expect to retain the attention of the discerning reader. Some of the ideas presented were surely controversial at the time of the book's release, but this does not excuse Shute's drowning us in sentimental hyperbole. This is not poor craftsmanship, but it is not great literature either.

Rating:
Summary: The Chequer Board
Review: What would you do if you had but one more year to live? Battle-wounded Capt. John Turner decided to use his year seaching out three buddies what had been in the military hospital with him -- each in a terrible jam -- and perhaps give them a helping hand. You'll meet snobbish Phil Morgan, the pilot who hated foreigners, yet deserted his wife to live with a Burmese maiden; Duggie Brent, a young commando, who had to unlearn the horrible teachings that made him an unintentional killer; and Dave Lasurier, the shy Negro G. I. who got into bad trouble -- and found his way out with the help of an understanding woman. John Turner's search for these three takes him to the far corners of the earth and into one strange experience after another until, in the end, he has changed from a petty opportunist into a man with truly great understanding, a man without fear of death. Only the author of PIED PIPER and PASTORAL could have written this powerful and touching novel, a story the critics have recommended "heartily and without reservation!" Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: The Chequer Board
Review: What would you do if you had but one more year to live? Battle-wounded Capt. John Turner decided to use his year seaching out three buddies what had been in the military hospital with him -- each in a terrible jam -- and perhaps give them a helping hand. You'll meet snobbish Phil Morgan, the pilot who hated foreigners, yet deserted his wife to live with a Burmese maiden; Duggie Brent, a young commando, who had to unlearn the horrible teachings that made him an unintentional killer; and Dave Lasurier, the shy Negro G. I. who got into bad trouble -- and found his way out with the help of an understanding woman. John Turner's search for these three takes him to the far corners of the earth and into one strange experience after another until, in the end, he has changed from a petty opportunist into a man with truly great understanding, a man without fear of death. Only the author of PIED PIPER and PASTORAL could have written this powerful and touching novel, a story the critics have recommended "heartily and without reservation!" Don't miss it.