Shute, Nevil. The Chequer Board. William Morrow & Company, 1947.
Reason read: Shute celebrates a birthday in January.
John Turner has been having attacks of giddiness and fainting spells. As a veteran of World War II he lives with inoperable shrapnel in his head. The story opens with him learning he has maybe a year to live because of this horrific wound. There is nothing the doctors can do. This abbreviated time on earth has prompted John to want to reconnect with three men he met in military hospital: Philip Morgan, a soldier prisoned in Burma during the war; Pfc Dave Lesurier, a soldier accused of attempted rape of a naive English girl; and Corporal Duggie Brent, a soldier who had killed a man during a bar fight. What had happened to these troubled men? Turner wants to find them and improve their lives if he can.
A side story is John’s relationship with his wife. His marriage to Mollie has strained for normalcy. From the very beginning the reader learns that Mollie did not visit Turner in the hospital; not even once despite the fact he was there for a week. She claims he hasn’t needed he. Neither has done anything kind for the other. A death sentence changes both of them. As a way of understanding Mollie urges John to find his former friends from the hospital.
Shute has a funny way of describing things. [She was] “about to produce an infant” (p 29) instead of saying she was pregnant once a year.
Quote to quote, “He like to drive for an hour to some country pub or roadhouse and drink beer in an atmosphere of smoke and laughter and good company” (p 31). That sounds like an amazing time. Can I come, too? Here is another, “Rather than fall into their hands, it was preferable to fall into the hands of death” (p 100).
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Nevil Shute: Too Good To Miss” (p 198). Pearl warns her readers that there would be racist language in The Chequer Board. I expected the derogatory name calling but not the all out blatant racism. Even in the twenty-first century, there is a lot of that going around. With the death of Rob Reiner there is a resurgence of people watching “All in the Family.” The character of Archie Bunker is not exactly all that politically correct. Those were the prejudices of the time and somehow acceptable.
~*LunaSea*~ 