The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Thorn Birds
Book Review: Classify under "Romance"
Summary: 2 Stars
If you're looking for a long, romantic yarn, this is a pretty decent one. The writing is quite good--you can feel the dust and heat of Australia, as it works its way under your skin. And you feel for the protagonist; you feel for a woman who has few options in life, and who's life is inevitably chained to one man or another. Although I'm very sympathetic to this position, I felt a little bit lost inside of this woman's mind, and felt that her men were caricatures, rather than developed characters. I wanted to be a part of her thinking, but this bias in the writing threw me off.
In the end, after hundreds of pages and a bit too much saga, we are to rejoice that her chains have become easier. It's a little hard to swallow. I don't think this qualifies as a feminist work. I'd tell men to skip this one altogether, and advise readers that this is, ultimately, just a well-written romance novel, for better or for worse.
Book Review: Decent effort, but extremely disappointing.
Summary: 2 Stars
I'll admit it, I buy into hype a lot, which is why I read this book. The way people talked about it as well as its TV movie version, I expected a masterpiece along the lines of Gone With The Wind, which I read and loved. I can't say the same for The Thorn Birds.First off, I can not see how a thorn bird (a bird that endures pain on a thorn to sing a few minutes of a beautiful song) fit into the story. It is supposed to explain the forbidden love between a young girl, Meggie, and a priest named Ralph. However, it is touched on so lightly that it seems more like the two have crushes on each other than anything. The only part that I thought came even close to interesting was when Meggie married a man because of his stature (Luke) and ended up in an extremely unhappy marriage. The rest of the text is more or less a complete bore.
Overall, though, the concept was interesting and some of the writing was just beautiful. However, I still cannot say that those two make this a worthy read. In fact, the whole time I managed to read this I kept thinking that this book tried way too hard to be the next Gone With The Wind. Read that one, but not this one. Meggie is no Scarlett O'Hara.
Book Review: Deepest of love stories
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the deepest love story I've ever read about. More so than Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere, etc. The intensity is unmatched. I think it's because the beginning of their love starts so early, when Meggie is a 10 year old girl, somewhat neglected by her family. Ralph is a father figure to her for years, the only one there to care about her and help her grow up. So the foundation of the relationship is that of a vulnerable little girl and a protective man who's moved by her vulnerability. Then she becomes a beautiful young woman and their relationship is transported into another dimension.
The intensity is also related to the fact that the passion has to be suppressed for so many years. Ralph has never been with a woman before, and when they finally come together because he cannot suppress his feelings any longer, it must be the most powerful experience imaginable. All that together- deep love and attraction plus denied passion festering over years and years- then finally being able to let go and express it all. It would be uncontrollable and ecstatic.
I saw the miniseries before I read the book and was very moved by it. It was breathtaking. Especially the melody, which is incredibly haunting.
Book Review: Drama par excellence
Summary: 5 Stars
The best part of reading this book is that it is divided by generation & by character. And each character is unforgetable. Undoubtedly, Mrs Colleen McCoullough is a magnificient writer. Meg, the central character, is someone many women would relate to and her character has evolved masterfully. A story of an amazing set of individuals who are bound together with a common thread-LOVE.
Most of all, it gives a perfect picture of Australian outback life, its cruel 'down sides' & beautiful & serene 'upsides'.
Read this book and immerse yourself into the life of these wonderful family.
Book Review: Excellent depiction of rural Australia, but so-so melodrama
Summary: 3 Stars
It looks like I am the first reader to not find this book a 5-star page-turner. Since I like reading about rural and frontier life, I very much enjoyed the early part of the book which richly describes the Cleary's lives (both their emotional lives and their day-to-day trials) in New Zealand and their first years in Australia. But the plot got less and less credible after the demise of Mary Carson and the departure of Ralph from the scene, and at least for me, the story just deteriorated into a mediocre soap opera. Perhaps as a result of being Jewish and having grown up within a warm, ebullient and highly emotional family, it was hard for me to relate to Fee's stoic living dead manner, or see any higher, spiritual element in Meggies' love affair with Ralph. Basically this struck me as a story of 3 generations of somewhat dysfunctional women. Fee was very much a victim of her times, but once the family inherited some money Meggie at least had choices, which she never exercised. Far from inspiring, the hopeless infatuation between Ralph and Meggie had essentially hardened into a bad habit that, thanks to the emotional sterility of their everyday lives, neither one of them was motivated to break.