The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute ~ 1947. This edition: William Morrow & Co., 1947. Hardcover. 380 pages.
‘Tis all a Chequer board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald
Nevil Shute was a writer of a certain dedicated earnestness, and in none of his many books is he as earnest as he is here, tackling the thorny question of skin colour and mixed race relationships, from the everyday associations of people-at-large to the intimacy of marriage.
Nevil Shute was also a man of deep personal decency, so it won’t be any surprise to those who know his work to hear that this is a deeply decent novel, a nice novel. In it people are given the opportunity to redeem themselves, to take the high road, and for the most part they do.
In 1943, during World War II, four men find themselves sharing a ward in a British military hospital after the plane three of them are in crash lands after being damaged by enemy fire on the way home to England from Algiers. Two of the plane crash casualties are under military arrest: Captain John Turner, for black market activities, and paratrooper Duggie Brent, for killing a man during a bar brawl. The pilot of the crashed plane, Flying Officer Phillip Morgan, is in the guarded ward because he has a badly broken thigh bone, and there is no other place for him to be cared for.
This annoys Morgan, because in the bed next to him is an American soldier, David Lesurier, under arrest on a charge of attempted rape, and in hospital because he cut his own throat while hiding from pursuing police. The reason for Phillip Morgan’s annoyance is not so much that David is a possible rapist, but that he is black. A “dirty n*gger”, in fact, and he goes on about this at great length, which proves to be deeply ironic due to events which occur later in the tale.
Oh, yes. I should mention here that the book was written in the 1940s, so the various common words used to refer to people of colour back then – now deemed highly derogatory – are used freely and abundantly. Bear with Nevil Shute; he’s got a little moral to expound on; the archaic terminology is being bandied about partly because that was the norm, but also for future dramatic effect.
So Captain Turner has a serious head injury; he’s swathed in bandages and can’t see his wardmates. They are set to keep him from going absolutely stir crazy by reading to him and conversing with him; in the weeks they share the space they become deeply intimate, though when each departs there is no thought of ever seeing each other again; it is wartime, after all, and people go where they’re sent, plus there are those three trials looming.
Forward four years, and here we find John Turner out of jail, back in civilian life, and doing not too badly, except for these fainting spells and dizziness. Seems that there are a few metal fragments lodged in his brain, inoperably so, and the long-term prognosis is not good at all.
Yup, John is dying, and he comes to terms with that in a most admirable way, but before he goes, he sets himself to find his old wardmates and see how they’re doing, to help them out if need be. (Seems John still has some of that illicit black market money tucked away, and since he’s not going to be around to spend it…)
One by one John tracks down his old companions, and what he finds is most surprising.
Despite the main character being under sentence of death, this is an optimistic tale, all about people overcoming personal challenges and going on to make the world a better place for them having been in it.
There’s a rather well-worked-out theme in this tale involving Buddhism.
And that whole interracial relationship thing.
That’s all I’m going to divulge, for if you are a Shute fan already you’ll believe me when I assert that this is up to par, a steady good read, and if you’re new to him you’ll hopefully find something to please you in this even-tempered saga of the not-too-perfect common man.
Here’s another teaser of sorts from the back dust jacket of the first American edition of The Chequer Board.
Oh, and my rating. 8/10.
One last note. Yes, Nevil Shute pounds home his points in this one, doggedly pursuing his plot to each tidy end of each diverging thread, and yes, it does get a bit preachy here and there. I forgave him, because his heart is so obviously in the right place. Bear with the man; he did his best, too!
Leaves & Pages 
I don’t think I have read a Nevil Shute novel since I was in my teens, and taking the old paperbacks off my dad’s bookshelf. This sounds excellent, not one of his I had heard of.
It’s not one of the most common, that’s for sure. I think it might be one of the last Shute wrote while living in England; I believe he moved to Australia right around that time.
There is a lovely little side story regarding The Chequer Board. Shute and his wife went to the United States on a book tour to promote it; they were expecting a mixed or possibly negative reception due to its frank condemnation of American policies of racial discrimination in the southern states. They travelled by Greyhound bus to save money, which I thought was a lovely note on Shute’s personality – he was a well established, best-selling author at this point, after all – and rather than being shunned, they were warmly welcomed wherever they went – a great relief!
My husband and I were discussing this novel while I was reading it – he had read it first, and was warm in his praises – “It’s such a *nice* book, so hopeful”, was his take on it, and I’ve used that in my post – it is indeed “nice” in the very best sense of the word!
His heart being in the right place is a very good description of Shute and what I think makes his novels so satisfying. This is one of the few I have left to read and sounds like I’ll enjoy it.
He always seems to me like a rather more technically minded D.E. Stevenson sort of writer. Doesn’t shy away from the realities but always ultimately focussing on the good in people. I was hesitant to start The Chequer Board – one description I’d read made it sound a bit off-putting, but I was hooked right away and enjoyed it greatly, once over the shock of the lavish use of era-expected language. You will notice how the terminology changes as things progress.
I love the four or five Shute’s I’ve read, so I’m grateful for your review! I’ve been trying to finish one from my shelves, Trustee and the Toolroom, but I’ve so many on my pile it’s taking a long time.
I found Trustee a bit hard going; I kept wandering away from it. But it had a satisfying wind-up, though I was rather saddened by the offhand disposal of the couple in the beginning. I guess that was needed for the story set-up, but still!
Ok, good to know that I’m not the only one slogging a bit with it. 🙂
I enjoyed this one too. I did intend to work my way through all of his books but I’ve stalled on that plan at the moment. Reading On the Beach was a bit too depressing and worrying given what the world is like at the moment.
I keep looking at On the Beach and then averting my eyes. A little too close to home at present, I agree. I read it the first time when I was a teenager and it remains vivid in my mind.