From the Bookshelf of Read the World With Me…

The Thorn Birds

Colleen McCullough

Start date: September 5, 2023

Finish date: October 1, 2023

Why we're reading this: For the month of September we are reading the Australian author Colleen McCullough's The Thornbirds.…more
[close] For the month of September we are reading the Australian author Colleen McCullough's The Thornbirds.

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Oct 14, 2023 Elise rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I read this book for my Read the World series (Australia) and I didn't have high hopes because of the cover with the older priest and young woman, also I don't read a lot of romance books. However, I really enjoyed this book. It's long, mine was the mass market at almost 700 pages and it expands over several decades, including World War II.

The story centers on the Cleary family, New Zealand sheep shearers of Irish decent who move to Australia to work on a wealthy relatives sheep station. At the I read this book for my Read the World series (Australia) and I didn't have high hopes because of the cover with the older priest and young woman, also I don't read a lot of romance books. However, I really enjoyed this book. It's long, mine was the mass market at almost 700 pages and it expands over several decades, including World War II.

The story centers on the Cleary family, New Zealand sheep shearers of Irish decent who move to Australia to work on a wealthy relatives sheep station. At the beginning of the story, Meggie is 4 given a doll for her birthday and by the time they arrive in Australia she is 9. At NINE YEARS OLD, she meets the local priest Ralph who instantly has an attachment to her but he doesn't know why. There is so much that happens in this book that the relationship of the priest and the young woman is such a small part of it although it is throughout the novel.

The women of this book (Fee, Meggie, and Justine) are forces unto themselves and so much of what is at the core of who they are the tragedies that constantly rock their worlds and the way they handle them. The sheep station is a hard life with constant drought and little interactions with others but again there is so much that happens. The main 3 women don't understand each other but are so much alike and then there is Frank. The oldest of the Cleary boys who doesn't quite belong. It is through the character of Frank that we see Fee, his mother, the clearest.

This was a writing feat for sure, however, I was disappointed that there was hardly any mention of aboriginal people. Fee is said to have Maori blood but more to explain why she has dark hair but the story of her great grandfather shows her aristocratic upbringing as well her hardness, he honestly sounded terrifying. The relationship between Ralph and Meggie was off putting, not necessarily the age difference but more of the age they met and what he meant to her at such a young age. The Aunt saw right through Ralph and the choice she left for him was smart but in the end actually didn't hurt the Clearys as much as she thought it would. There are also quite a few deaths, some very tragic. It's just a sad story but considering how long it was I was rarely bored.

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Feb 19, 2017 Danita L marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: _-available-at-bpl, classics, historical-fiction, fiction, authors-australia

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