The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute

First published in 1947

John Turner has a health condition that will end his life. How will he spend his last days? Working? Spending time with his wife despite his troubled marriage? It's easy to empathize with Turner as he ponders his options while plugging along. Ultimately, in the limited time that remains before his death, Turner decides to locate and assist three servicemen who befriended him while he was laid up in a hospital during the war.  He feels the need to do something positive with his last months of life and relishes the opportunity to repay the kindnesses they showed him.

Turner's account of the servicemen's stories is enriching and frequently moving. Although Turner's quest leads him to the three men, the story focuses on two of them:  Phillip Morgan, who married a Burmese woman and adapted to her culture; and Dave Lesurier, a black American soldier who was persecuted and unjustly accused of rape by white members of the American military.  Morgan's story gives Shute a chance to compare British and Burmese cultures, philosophies, and political organizations.  While Morgan's story is fascinating, Lesurier's is more powerful.  Some American readers might think Shute went too far in portraying members of the American military as racist (although, to his credit, he introduces an American character who is not) while portraying the white residents of a British village as accepting, and indeed embracing, the wronged soldier.  I thought the story had the ring of truth but I'm not an expert in the racial attitudes that prevailed in small English villages during World War II.

In each of these situations, Shute addresses dynamic issues of culture and bigotry with sensitivity and insight. Unsurprisingly, Turner learns as much about himself as he does about his old friends, ultimately making his journey one of self-discovery. To some extent, the novel is about clearing the path for death.  He returns to his wife a better man than the one who left on his journey..

In prose that is characteristically quiet and graceful, Shute tells an end-of-life story that is sad but uplifting.  The Chequer Board is a very impressive work.

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The Breaking Wave by Nevil Shute

First published in the United Kingdom in 1955 under the title Requiem For A Wren. 

The characters in Nevil Shute's novels always seem to share two qualities: decency and dignity. The novels are filled with pain and death; war is a frequent theme. Toward the end of The Breaking Wave, Shute writes: "Like some infernal monster, still venomous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it's all over." Despite the tragic events they experience, Shute's characters are kind and helpful and caring. The moral of Shute's novels seems to be: death is inevitable; what matters is that you behave decently during your life, so that you can die with your dignity intact. That's certainly the lesson I took from The Breaking Wave.

It's difficult to write a synopsis of The Breaking Wave without including spoilers, so this will be brief. Alan and Bill Duncan are brothers. They grew up on a sheep farm in Australia. The farm is a big business and the family is rather wealthy. Alan and Bill are both in England during World War II. Alan is a fighter pilot in the RAF; his plane is shot down and his feet have to be amputated. Bill is the equivalent of a Navy Seal; he dies on a mission in preparation for D-Day. (Those aren't spoilers; the reader learns these facts early on.) As the novel begins, Alan is returning to the family farm, having finished his post-war law degree at Oxford. He discovers that his mother is distressed by the apparent suicide of the parlor maid. Alan digs around and discovers the maid's diaries. He spends all night reading them and soon realizes that he had met the woman during the war. What Alan learns about her and about his family changes his life.

The woman's story is incredibly sad. I'm glad I was alone when I read The Breaking Wave because my misty-eyed reaction to the last chapters would have destroyed my carefully cultivated image as a manly man. Yet it's also the story of an eventful life, albeit one that is derailed by tragedy. The woman meets her death with her dignity intact, and Shute's moving story makes clear why she made the choice to end her life. As always, Shute writes with a soft voice; there's nothing flashy about the quiet elegance of his prose; he lets the story unfold without getting in its way. And it's an amazing, powerful story, filled with insight about war and relationships and the human condition. The characters are as real and believable as your neighbors, and probably more likable.

Shute is best known for two wonderful novels -- A Town Like Alice and On the Beach -- but his lesser-known novels are every bit as good. The Breaking Wave is one of his best.

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