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Summary: The Thorn Birds--The greatest romance novel of all time
Review: The Thorn Birds, written by Colleen McCullough, in my opinion is the greatest romance novel of all time. The character of Meggie Cleary is my favorite character in all of literature. Her strength, beauty, passion and love makes her a timeless heroine. Meggie and Father Ralph share a love story that spans many years and many heartbreaks. Even though they are not together, the book always has a undercurrent where you can feel their longing and endless love for each other, even though they are not together. In their hearts, they will be together forever.Meggie and Ralph are the Romeo and Juliet of the Australian outback- just as tortured and tragic. The miniseries was also fabulous--Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward make me speechless every time I see it. It is spectacular. Read The Thorn Birds and watch the series, if you are lucky enough to have the chance. You will never be the same--it's not just a book or a movie, it's an experience. Thank you Colleen McCullough, for such a wonderful story.
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Summary: A Heart-rending Novel
Review: The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough, begins in 1915 and spans three generations long. It is a complex story about the Cleary family that leave their home in New Zealand to live and work on a relative's extensive, Australian sheep ranch. At the ranch, the family experiences many tragedies and hardships including fires, floods, droughts, and devastating deaths of loved ones. The main character, Meggie, falls madly in love with a handsome man named Ralph. Unfortunately, Meggie is not able to marry Ralph because he is a priest. Ralph loves Meggie dearly, but has devoted his entire life to God. Throughout the novel, they experience great love and sorrow together. Meggie has children who become the third generation of the novel. The children bring her much happiness, but she still has a deep passion for Ralph in her heart. This forbidden love for Ralph will stay burning inside her soul throughout her entire life.I truly enjoyed how the author used a lot of description and detail in the novel. This description enabled me to paint vivid pictures of the beautiful, Australian land in my mind, as well as clear pictures of the many different characters' inner and outer appearances. This extraordinary love story was like an emotional rollercoaster. It twisted and turned leaving me feeling many different emotions including love, humor, sadness, anger, hate, and malice. I often found myself crying as well as laughing while I eagerly devoured every word on the page. It kept me reading and reading until the very interesting ending. I would recommend this captivating novel to anyone who is looking for a great story about life and love! I'm sure you will enjoy it just as much as I did!
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Summary: Blown Away
Review: I first read this book when I was thirteen, and now, four years later I am still taken away by this novel. There are so many subtle ironies and twists that you don't catch them all at once. The story itself is beautiful, in a very twisted sort of way. Pain is a way of life to the Cleary family and all those who come in contact with them. There is nothing that can be protected from fate and from the outback sun. From the deaths of sons to eternal bitterness to passionate love and lust, every human emotion is explored in this novel. The metaphors for life are extrodinary and very delicate. I still quote from this book regulally since it has become, it feels, so real to me. Meggie and her family come alive in your mind when reading this, the characters are so incredably vivid. An amazing read from cover to cover!
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Summary: Touching, beautiful saga that leaves reader overwhelmed!
Review: "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough is my favorite novel. It is in a category by itself and deserves more than five stars. I saw ten minutes of the miniseries on television and knew I had to read the book. I was twelve, and the story of Meggie and Ralph moved me to hysterical tears. I am now 18, and I have read the book so many times I have lost count. Set in the Australian Outback in the years surrounding WWII, it is the story of a girl growing up, learning that "The best is only bought at the cost of great pain...Or so says the legend." The courage and strength of Meggie despite the tremendous hardships of her life inspires me. I must admit I fell in love with Ralph de Bricassart; first with his name, then with the man. (I can only hope to find such a person!) All of the other characters--Fee, Paddy, Frank, Dane, Justine, Rain--are developed clearly throughout the story. McCullough is a genius for combining three generations of the Cleary family into one novel! I still cry when I read the story, for the love, and for the pain. The introductory story of the thornbird is a lesson for life: all sadness will pass, and one day something beautiful will come from that pain. A highly emotional book, "The Thorn Birds" is the best work of this century. It is worth reading to anyone who enjoys drama and romance, as well as suspense, action, and sadness! The movie based on the novel starring Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward is an excellent interpretation.
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Summary: an old classic
Review: could not put it down. Descriptive. Spicy. Delicious.
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Summary: A timeless story of love, ambition, and struggle!
Review: This is a truly a great and classic novel. I do not bestow these oft-overused adjectives lightly. This is a story of deep, rich, and forbidden love, betrayal, tragedy, and ambition. This is a truly wonderful story set primarily in Australia, circa 1915 and then spanning several generations to the post World War II era. McCullough writes a sprawling story which primarily centers on the forbidden love between an extraordinary woman and a good but ambitious priest. This is the story of the Cleary family, originally from Ireland, who emigrate first to New Zealand, and early on, to Australia. The young Cleary daughter, Meggie, falls in love with the local Catholic priest, Ralph de Briccasart, who is a good and ambitious man who certainly does nothing to encourage this love, but who certainly returns it as he regards Meggie as the daughter he can never have. As Meggie matures, he comes to regard her in a more romantic way. A great struggle arises between this love on the one hand ("the forbidden rose") and his ambition to become a Cardinal or perhaps more, on the other. There is much, much, more to the story than this, however. The novel transports the reader to Australia, and makes that country a real place to those of us who have never been there. This is also the story of the struggles of the Cleary family, as they battle with, and come to love, the rich outback country of Australia. This is an extraordinarily authentic and moving story that any review (or at least this one) can only fail to do justice. McCullough's prose is simply outstanding, and her characters crackle with realism--they become utterly real people and the reader will become swept away with this wonderful story. The storyline never drags, and at no point does this novel ever fail to completely capture the reader's attention. This novel is not only a classic; it is a ripping good read! If you have not yet enjoyed this novel, you are in for a wonderful reading experience.
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Summary: Recommendation for The Thorn Birds
Review: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is a novel that seems to include every genre from romance to historical fiction and even tragedy. The story follows the lives of the members of a family through a full generation. This results in the development of many characters, and there is probably at least one that almost any person can relate to. One thing notable about the book is its amazing attention to detail. This was a cause of both my like and dislike for the novel. The detail is well-written enough to leave an image in the mind of the reader upon completion of a passage, a quality not all books have. On the other hand, the detail can be monotonous and cause the reader to lose interest. The latter is much less common, and the story kept me interested throughout. This novel seems to be directed at women, and I doubt if many male readers would enjoy it. I would recommend it to women high school age and older. However, because the story involves many relationships, I recommend that the reader is not completely opposed to the romance genre. Even readers who would not normally choose a romance novel would still enjoy this book because it includes so much more.
Rating: 
Summary: A Grand Epic?!
Review: Meant to be an elegant, thrilling, enthralling story that would span the lives of a family over three generations, "The Thornbirds" begins in in 1915. The Clearys are living a harsh life in New Zealand until their fortunes are changed when a wealthy relative in Australia decides that they are to inherit part of her prosperous farm. When the family travels to Australia, they meet Father Ralph, a stunningly handsome and intriguingly mysterious priest who lives near their farm. Maggie, the only Cleary daughter, falls deeply in love with Father Ralph. He longs to return this love, but as a priest, cannot. This complicated love is the basic theme of the book; the many troubling issues that plague Maggie and the rest of her family are interwoven as well. In some ways, it's ironic that this book just didn't do it for me. "Gone With the Wind" is one of my favorite books, and to many people, "The Thornbirds" is a similar type of book. Both novels are long-winded, elaborate sagas, each filled what are supposed to be intriguing and unusual characters and grand settings. But most of these criteria are exactly what I felt was wrong wtih "The Thornbirds." The long descriptions (there was one description simply of Australian wildlife was FOUR pages long) were for the most part ineffective here. Occasionally, when one was to introduce a character, or explain someone's psyche, these long descriptions were necessary. But more often, they were just a pain. I often found myself bored by the profusion of information, and felt that the author was "describing" just because she enjoyed doing it. In addition to simply boring passages, the whole book felt very "uneven." In "Gone With the Wind," each chapter seems exciting and the book flies by. In this novel, there were there were entire parts (the book is arranged in sections) that were tiresome descriptions of everyday life. I will say that McCullough describes love scenes superbly, but reading 704 pages for a few fast-paced passages, a couple of interesting psychological revelations, and little bit of hot romance does not seem like a good trade-off. Finally, the characters just don't inspire. To use the same comparison, Scarlett O'Hara of "Gone With the Wind" is everything a character should. Cliche yet fresh, goddess-like yet human, harsh yet vulnerable, and supremely unpredictable and unconventional, she was always worth reading about. Yet in this book, the characters seem kind of distant. Father Ralph and Maggie don't jump off the pages, they just "stay there." This might be becuase they aren't very inspiring-they both stay in pretty much the same place (both mentally and physically) and wither with love for each other for their entire lives. I know I'm literally one of millions of people to take this view of "The Thorn Birds," but it's really what I think. Dull description, relatively few truly interesting parts, and unspiring characters make this book not a long and wonderful epic but simply...long.
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Summary: Not a typical romance novel
Review: I just recently caught the mini-series on TV, and my mom gushed how much she loved the story when she first saw it. I expected the book to be your typical sappy romance fare, but not so. The characters are strong, and very well developed. We can delve into their lives, and understand how their backgrounds influence their actions and motivations.
My only complaints are that towards the end of the book, the drama fizzles out. Too much attention is paid to the unsympathetic and uninteresting character of Justine, and her relationship with the equally boring Rainer. As for Dane, I found him to be a little too "perfect." While he was supposed to be a better version of Ralph, the author should have given him at least one flaw. It would have made his character easier to identify with. The whole reason why Ralph worked so well was because he was a flawed human being, and struggled his entire life to reconcile that reality with his desire for perfection. Although, it did seem as the author tried to make him a superfluous character at end. She drifted away from the main story of Meggie and Ralph.
All in all though, The Thorn Birds is a great book, very descriptive and emotionally involving.
Rating:
Summary: Classify under "Romance"
Review: 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.
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