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Summary: no words to describe it
Review: There really are no words to describe just how good this book is. If you haven't read this book yet, a part of you is missing. If you never have had your heart broken before, the term "heart break" will suddenly become clear. Read this book at home with a box of tissues.
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Summary: What an epic!
Review: Like so many other girls of my era, I picked up the name Megan after my mother saw the mini-series in the 80s and absolutely fell in love with the characters. I'd always been intrigued with the story of how my mama's little girl got her name from a MOVIE, of all things, so when I "was old enough" to investigate for myself, I picked up the book (no easy feat, at over 700 pages!) and started reading this past summer. I just finished a few weeks ago and all I can say is WOW!It's not an uplifting tale, but I was more than content with that -- life is not always uplifting. It was an intricate, stunning story of the three generations of the same family, focusing on Meggie Cleary (my name sake) and her forbidden obsession with Father Ralph. At times throughout the novel, I simply had to sit back and say, "Wow." No other words formed coherently in my brain. It is an epic of the truest sense... you'll cry, you'll gasp, you'll... cry some more. It's got everything you could really ask for -- action, adventure, romance... and more romance. It leaves you strangely unfulfilled, however... Dane never learns the truth of about his father, and Meggie never lives happily ever after with Ralph. That's the most tragic part of all. But I cannot say that I didn't enjoy it... I'd be lying through my teeth. It was one of the most powerfully written stories I've ever had the privilege of reading, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to really sink their teeth into a good novel.
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Summary: An Incredible Saga and Love Story
Review: I absolutely loved the saga-style writing, the setting of the Australian Outback and the bitter defeats and magnificant triumphs that this story takes you through... but undoubtedly, the most memorable thing I will keep with me, and will forever be moved by, is the "forbidden love" between Meggie and Father Ralph. I have three copies of this book. Two to lend out to friends and one which will never leave my bookshelf. Thank you Colleen McCullough for a wonderful heart-rending epic!!
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Summary: A Fairytale Novel
Review: Many other reviewers have described this book as romantic, and indeed it is. Its pituresque rural settings, clear-cut characters, and impossible situtations make the book ripe for drama. And indeed drama does occur and often, making this rather lengthy book a surprisingly quick read. Its characters, as mentioned before, have very defining virtures and flaws, chracteristics to which they cling to adamently, as they bring the readers no surprises by their actions. This does not make their actions boring, however, as McCullough exhausts possibilities (mostly sexual) with each character before killing them off and concentrating on the next generation. This book's tragic ending (I'm not giving anything away her- the introductory poem alludes to this much) has disappointed many expecting their fairytale romance to end happily. I did not think the ending failed for its depressing nature, however, but moreover because it was an attempt to tack a theme on a story at the last possible moment. The theme did interest me, but I would have appreciated it if it had been more religiously applied throughout the work, instead of only in the title, the introductory poem, and the conclusion. This flaw wasn't a major distraction, however, and on the whole, "The Thorn Birds" is definitely worth a read.
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Summary: Very Intruiging
Review: This is a fascinating book about many generations of the same family. I have read it at least 4 times. I suggest it to anyone looking for a good, albeit long, geneaology.
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Summary: We're forgetting about Justine!!!!!!!
Review: The summarize the Thorn Birds, it is a great, but very depressing book. The first part of the book is especially depressing, so if you're looking for a feel-good kind of book I definitely don't recommend it. There is nothing humourous in this book. It is the tragic love story between Meggie Cleary and Ralph DeBriccarcent (I don't think I spelled his name right!). They both love each other, but Ralph is far too self-absorbed and ambitious to show some humility and admit his love to Meggie. and Meggie is too obsessive to get over Ralph and move on with her life. That's the really sad part. Most of us have had some bad experience with love sometime in our lives, or even had our heart's broken. But most people are able to pick up and move on after awhile. Well Meggie spends literally her WHOLE life pining away for Ralph, whom she knows she can never have. That's the tragedy. Her whole life is ruined because of her obsession. It is said that Meggie is a strong character but I think if she was really strong she should have actually done something worthwhile with her life and found a man who really loved her, enough to give her a warm home and many children as she always wanted (unlike Luke!). The only purpose her whole life had was the raising of her two children. Of course one of them had to die to make the book even more tragic but let's just say that the children are the two strongest characters in the book. Dane, her son, becomes a preist like Ralph, but unlike Ralph, he is the perfect preist. Instead of simply trying to move up in position in the church, he is sincerely interested in finding God and the way to best serve him. Justine is also an amazing character and in all the other reveiws I've read, she's been absolutely neglected. Justine's being in the book is the very reason i gave it 4 stars instead of 2. When the book focuses on Justine the book really livens up. Here's a woman who won't spend her life pining away for a man who doesn't love her. This girl is moving!!!!!!!! She isn't content to waste her life as a nothing on little old Drogheda. She runs out into the real world and grasps from it what she can. And she becomes a rich and famous actress in London because of it! Plus, she is EXTREMELY intelligent and quick-minded. Her vocation choice (an actress) fits her perfectly and she is brillant as an actress as she is in everything else. Well, everything except love and emotion, but she does have an emotional awakening at the end. She is a lot of fun, has many friends and is very exuberant. Unlike the other characters who seem to refuse to be happy no matter what there circumstances Justine excepts happiness. She is by far the happiest character in the book (Dane and Rain are close at least). Unlike her mother, grandmother and Ralph who are content to stay down in the dumps and depressed for their whole lives, Justine always stays mostly high-spirited and optimistic. That's one of the reasons you've gotta love her, she brings some cheer and humour and vivacity into this tragic-beyond-real-life book. She's a very spirited and animated and lively, energetic person who is vivid and will stay in your mind. So don't forget Justine. She helps the book out a lot in the end and really ties things together well. You cannot wait to find out what this chic does next! I think they should have a sequel called JUSTINE. Well anyway, this is definitely a book you want to read, and if the middle has you down a little bit, the Justine part will perk you up a bit.
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Summary: The Thorn Birds
Review: When my mother first read this novel, she loved the name of the main character (Meggie or Megan) so much that she named me Megan. So that became the first reason why I ever picked up this hefty novel. This story ranks up there with my other favorite all-time novels, which include "Rebecca" and "Gone with the Wind". The story is set in Australia around the time of WWII and tells the tangled romance of Meggie Cleary and Father Ralph. The unforgettable characters are amazing and seem to become life-like. If you get the chance, watch the miniseries, which stars Richard Chamberlain as Father Ralph, Rachel Ward as Meggie and her real-life husband as Luke O'Neill. Very good!
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Summary: One of the Best Books You Will Ever Read!
Review: The Thornbirds is definitely within the top five of my favorite books. The movie is wonderful and the book is even better, giving you more detail and perspective on the characters. If you like novels that struggle with "true but forbidden love" (ie Bridges of Madison County, Losing Julia, Fortunes Rocks, etc), you should enjoy this book!
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Summary: I just couldn't put it down!
Review: What a fabulous book! I really enjoy books that are about families and that is what this book is about, but also so much more. This book follows the Cleary family through all the ups and downs, the births and deaths. Though the family is large, the focus tends to be on Meggie, the only daughter. The book is very insightful on human relationships whether it be between siblings, mother and daughter, father and son, or man and woman. You will fall in love with this book and the 700 pages will fly by. I enjoyed every last minute of it and hated to see the end.
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Summary: An Australian Outback Saga
Review: Someone once described W.S. Maugham as one of the greatest storytellers of our time for he writes with a vigorous flair, extraordinary clarity and precision and tightly disciplined with superb wit and urbanity and his sense of literary form is indeed something to conjure with. After reading Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds, I have come to the same conclusion, that is, the description on W.S. Maugham's penmanship can also be applied to McCullough's writing aptitude. Her style of writing is tinged with a touch of lucidity and simplicity, free from affectations and at her best, she has a delicate, condescending grace and charm. McCullough's dialogue is irrefragably excellent for the revelation of character and her command of the idioms of the ordinary speech permits her to effectuate a fine naturalness. From the day of its publication in 1976, this exhilarating epic of outback life has been celebrated as the quintessential modern novel, a work that vividly brings to life all the details of life Down Under. The Thorn Birds deals with the tragedy of ordinary lives, unfolded with an intense compassion and profound insight into the truth of the multifarious characters. McCullough fleshes out each and every character with minuteness and precision. The characters are common people, extremely down-to-earth and are convincingly and irrefutably alive. We have already taken notice of her bold and believable characterisation in Tim, her first novel which is an extremely poignant love story told with profound candour that acutely delves with acumen and insight into the affinity and emotional consequences of a forbidden love between an ingratiating, mentally-retarded young labourer and a middle-aged spinster. Concealed behind her writing lies a sense of tragedy of life, in which transgression and iniquity or folly brings its own retributions, especially Justine O'Neil, who sets a course of life and love halfway round the world from her roots in Gillanbone, Australia, to become an actress in London, who lost her virginity at the tender age of eighteen, and who at the end of the novel ultimately repent. McCullough can command a beauty of perspicuous expression that provokes the very emotional part of the erring human heart, a sweet, mellifluous, dulcet and piercing melody of infinite regret and yearning: "In the morning they stared, awed and dismayed, at a landscape so alien they had not dreamed anything like it existed on the same planet as New Zealand. The rolling hills were there certainly, but absolutely nothing else reminiscent of home. It was all brown and grey, even the trees! "The winter wheat was already turned a fawnish silver by the glaring sun, miles upon miles of rippling and bending in the wind, broken only by the strands of thin, spindling, blue-leafed trees and dusty clumps of tired grey bushes. Fee's stoical eyes surveyed the scene without changing expression but poor Meggie's were full of tears. It was horrible, fenceless and vast, without a trace of green." From this short abstract itself, McCullough depicts the enigmatic and intractable Australian background with striking vividness. Of all the characters delineated in this rousingly recounted saga of a grazier clan over a span of fifty-four years (between 1915 and 1969), none is better drawn than that of Meggie Cleary. It seems McCullough has put much of herself into the creation of the story, and in many ways, Colleen McCullough resembles Meggie Cleary. Even minor figures are drawn with sure, minimal brush strokes. The Thorn Birds is impregnated with memorable scenes that are vividly etched in the reader's mind. The heroine and main protagonist at the heart of the story, Meggie Cleary, whose passionate and forbidden love for the handsome, magnificent Catholic priest, Ralph De Bricassart, who is two decades older than her, is veritably the stuff of legend; her broken marriage to Luke O'Neil; her giving birth to Justine O'Neil, the brilliant actress, and Dane O'Neil, who was not fathered by O'Neil but by De Bricassart himself without his knowledge: these are some of the episodes that may linger in the reader's memory long after he has put the novel down. Alas, the course of true love is littered with thorns. Much of the fascination of The Thorn Birds can be traced to its blend of high romance and whim with undeniably realistic characters and background. This novel will undoubtedly be considered as McCullough's paragon, a masterpiece, because of its brilliant descriptive passages, the myriad poignant moments and the dramatic plot. She is indeed a writer of ingenuity and imaginative force. In complete control of her plot, her prose sways as gracefully as a waltz, glinting with irony, and meticulous in its detail and accent. In this family saga, McCullough fuses intriguing period detail onto a generational saga that features a host of superbly wrought characters. Thoroughly enjoyable, this novel offers intelligent, witty entertainment. Its clean prose, empathetic characters, a richly observed tale of love and despair, unravel the tangled threads of doomed relationship. By capturing the dusty, dry essence of life in the Australian outback. McCullough's real strength lies in her plotting and pacing, an eye for detail, and at creating a host of minor characters that people the landscape of her novel. Where her characters are caught up in a complex world of emotional connections and confusion, intertwined by the ties that bind them. Against a richly nuanced backdrop of people, place and history, it captures not only the breathless drama and agonising banality of life and all that it engenders, buts its abundant paradoxes as well. Gripping and awashed with dramatic nuances, rich in detail and densely textured, The Thorn Birds sings with an undertone of elegiac melancholy. Read it and weep!
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