Magnífico! Y me quedo corta; cortísima. Tanto que he estado a punto de otorgarle mis segundas 6 estrellas del año. Hace años vi por la tele la serie que se hizo de esta novela, pero no hay punto de comparación; es imposible. En la novela vemos y sentimos a todos sus personajes, sus miedos, sus inquietudes y deseos; todo lo que aman y aborrecen. Sus defectos y virtudes. Sencillamente muy muy fan de esta escritora.

In a down reading year, an epic family saga was just what I needed to push away the reading doldrums. Normally, a five star read would merit a long review depicting characters, place, time, and the author's luscious prose. The Thorn Birds had all of this and was hauntingly beautiful. Yet, despite the story of the Cleary family and their parish priest being a much needed tonic for me, I am omitting my long review for now. That is because The Thorn Birds is our quarterly long read in the group Retro Chapter Chicks here on goodreads. My fellow chicks are reading this book over the course of three months and I do not want to inadvertently give anything away here. The story of Meggie and Ralph was so captivating; however, that I read their saga in three days rather than months. It was that good, and the bonus is that I have still have three months of group discussions to immerse myself in their story. The Thorn Birds has catapulted itself to my all time favorite shelf and will be a saga that I sense myself revisiting more than once.

*5 star read*

I really enjoy epic stories and sagas, big sweeping stories that enmesh the reader in the characters and their lives, and make the reader more than just a bystander watching the action, but a sort of participant. We want things to go a certain way, we want things to go well, because we care about the characters, and we have invested our hopes in them.

Colleen McCullough has an almost magical skill in making her characters real and believable and true. That is what I love most about reading, and why I love certain authors above others. Where another author's character may be interesting and dynamic and exciting, they are still just a character. McCullough, and a few other authors, has the ability to make her characters, fictional though they may be, reach out of the pages and touch us. The characters she creates no longer feel like words on a page; they follow me around, pry their way into my dreams, make me wonder how they are spending their days when I'm not able to read about them. I love when I can just plunge into a book and live in it... To that end, McCullough even seemed to make Australia itself a living, breathing character. It's described beautifully, and is as unpredictable as any human character she's introduced here.

This is the third McCullough book that I've read, and I feel like she must have spent an inordinate amount of her life just observing life and people. She brings us the stories of the people she creates, but, even though we're following an omniscient narrator, we can only see, feel and hear so much of our subject's lives. We can only reach so far into their hearts for the mysteries that elude us, because, like real people, they don't have open-book hearts and minds. But it feels like we're able to see into their souls, because McCullough understands humanity itself, and presents us with general truths that feel like intimate secrets.

This story centers around the Cleary family and what comes to be their farm Drogheda. We meet Meggie Cleary as a 4 year old birthday girl, and then follow her through six decades of life, love and loss.

Her family is a strange, introverted male-centric one. Meggie is the only girl in a rather large clan of brothers: Frank, Bob, Jack, Hughie, Stuart, Hal, James and Patrick. She learns early to be self-reliant, because in her family there is not a lot of use for girls. Her mother is very closed-mouthed, very closed-off, and works her fingers to the bone to keep the household running, because her father has very distinct ideas about the differences between the sexes - housework and child-rearing is woman's domain only, and farming and work is man's domain only. The two are not to mix or cross paths. This is not to say that Paddy Cleary was a bad or harsh man, because he was not, but he just had certain ideas of how life is, and his word was law as the Man of the House.

Their lives ease somewhat after moving to Australia, but with the move comes a new set of struggles. Meggie meets and loves Father Ralph, the Catholic priest in the area. At ten, it's an innocent, adoring love, which provides her with attention that she's neglected in other areas of her life. Meggie is never taught about puberty, or where babies come from, or many other things that girls need to know. She's generally kept in the back hall closet of life. Not maliciously, but because in the Cleary family, a daughter has to fend for herself. Boys are the goal, because boys are the workers, the backbone of the family, and the genes that allow the name and lineage to be carried on. Because of Meggie's neglect, Father Ralph has the responsibility of teaching her the things that a mother should. As she grows up, the innocent love she holds for Father Ralph turns into more, and causes both parties to struggle, because what we want most is often what is the most forbidden.

Father Ralph is probably my favorite character here. I am not Catholic, and a lot of the Catholic faith is a mystery to me. But his struggles of conscience and faith, which force him to choose between the love he feels and the vows he made, in my mind make him the most interesting character of them all. I think that probably most priests have this crisis at some point in their lives... do they regret their decision to forfeit their manhood for the priesthood? Are they strong enough to resist temptation? I'm glad that we got to see things here from both sides - not only Father Ralph's struggle, but Meggie's struggles as well.

There was a lot in this book that reminded me of other classic literature. Father Ralph's struggles and Meggie's desire for him brought to mind Hester and Rev. Dimmesdale from "The Scarlet Letter". Justine, Meggie's daughter with Luke O'Neill, reminded me quite a bit of Jo March from "Little Women" in her feminist, proud, ambitious and take no prisoners approach to life. But in both cases, the similarities are only surface level, because these characters are far less perfect, less romantic, and more real than those they bring to mind from other books.

There is more than a little heartbreak in this book and I will admit that I shed a few tears. But one thing that rather grated on my nerves was that I could always tell when tragedy was about to strike. It seemed that for every loss, there was a hopeful build-up so that the fall would be that much greater. I felt that it was obvious and I rolled my eyes more than once because of it. So that's why I've taken off a star for this book. But that being said, the depictions of the reactions to the losses were very real and honest. I just wish that the red herring ploy wasn't so obvious.

Anyway, I did truly enjoy this book, as I have enjoyed the other McCulloughs that I've read. I do plan on reading more of her books in the future, and would certainly recommend this one.

Wow, I'm not sure how to rate this book really. I'm waffling between 3 and 4 stars. There is so much I loved about this book and then so much I didn't.

I remember when the mini-series was re-aired in the 80s and I was at a family reunion and the adults how this running during the summer and I saw bits and pieces of it. I never read the book and in the last few years the book has crept into my consciousness and I found myself yearning to read this story. I'm very glad that I did and got a piece of life so different from mine.

This book was set in Australia and a little bit at the start in New Zealand. I haven't read a story set in that part of the world yet and his book made that life in that country come to life back in that time period. We don't see much of New Zealand and they were only very poor people there, but we see what life is like on a ranch in Australia in all the daily details of what life is like. I'm adverse to the desert and the heat, so I don't want to set foot in such a place, but I love that I can learn about it through reading in my coolish apartment. I honestly don't get how people can stand to live in that kind of heat.

There is lots of slang in this book and names of things I never knew existed. Some of the slang is explained and some is not. There is a 10 year drought in this story, 10 years. I can't imagine not having rain for that long. I would go mad in those conditions. I could stand the constant rain to drought.

How to describ Colleen's writing. I love her characters, fully realized. Her tone is about as harsh as the setting in some ways and yet there is a smattering of softness here and there. Life is hard in this story and Colleen never lets us forget it. Everything is bright and so well told. Lines leap off the page and stick in your head. She is gifted, but I can't say it feels to me like she writes with my heart. Maybe the heart in her writing is all for the characters and how she loves them, even as she bashed the shit out of all of them, over and over.

Meggie is the central character in this story and her family around her. We start off the story when she is a girl and we finish while she is heading into old age. We see 3 generations of Cleary women love and how they deal with it. The Cleary's are a strange lot. For some reason, the boys don't marry. Meggie has like 6 or 7 brothers and none of them want a wife. For some reason they are all to shy to meet girls. That feels alien to me. I don't get it. It adds to the sadness of the story. The other main character is Ralph de Bricassart, a priest that minister to the ranch.

We see them go from the 1920s to the 1960s, so it's a sprawling story. WWII is really the only major world event that has a real impact on the story, but it takes place all over Europe. The heart of the story beats in Australia. Colleen must love that part of the world dearly for it shows in her descriptions.

What I'm learning is I'm not much of a fan of a story about lovers who never really let themselves be together. There is always something keeping them apart for most of their lives, but they can only love that one person. It's only pain and more pain. I love this sort of thing as a teen, but after going through love and seeing it differently, I feel this whole thing is silly and it's not a trope that interests me anymore. While I'm not a fan of this troupe, I still enjoyed reading about this life and what went on. I'm just not a fan of characters inflicting such wounds on themselves. I'm sure many people back then, especially not having as much choice as we do, went through this in some way in their life, but I still don't appreciate it. Somehow, authors don't enjoy writing about couples who are healthy and happy and still have tough times to get through. I guess I'm simply weird.

Also, I know there are amazing people in church, as I have had several family members who were in it, but we also now know all the problems the Catholic church hide and kept behind closed doors until it exploded out recently. There is a lot of politics at the higher lever. I feel like Ralph could have exposed a little of that, maybe not the focus, but he could have been in contrast to things going on. As brutal as the book was, Colleen's picture of the church simply seemed to rosy to me.


Spoilery - possibly!




I do like the story arc of the women in this book. We meet Fee, a woman who loved a man and couldn't be with him and then took a husband to have kids with and only after he died realized how much she grew to love him. Then there is Meggie, who has only loved Ralph her whole life, but she tries marriage with Luke, that detestable lug who wants no part of marriage. Meggie ends up single with 2 kids. Meggie has Dane and Justine. Justine is the combination of Fee and Meggie. She never want to marry and content to be alone, or so she convinces herself. But finally, after 3 generations, it looks as though Justine is the one who has finally been lucky enough to find love and he seems like an amazing man. Justine is the one that seems to heal the family 'curse' or finding a way to love a man who can love her back.

I thought the whole death with Dane was overwrought and put there simply to tug on our heartstrings and make her characters suffer more. It felt a little cheap to me. He was healthy and had a heart attack in his 20s, really???

We see Meggie's first year in school and what a horror show it was to see nun's teaching school. Man, no wonder I have friends who can't stand the church after they had similar things in their school. It was brutal and it broke my heart. Fee neglected Meggie emotionally in many ways. Meggie having to go through her period on her own, knowing nothing and having no one to talk to was a sad thing. Meggie is a wonder, truly.

Ralph, I can't say I understand the appeal of Ralph. colleen works hard to make the reader fall in love with Ralph and even one of the blurbs on the book compared him to Rhett Butler. He is a beautiful man, I can see that, but I can't understand why he has such a pull on people. I liked him, but I didn't think he was the bees knees either. He sounded beautiful, but if he's not available, move on. But, people in the service of a higher purpose do have an appeal and so I can see it from that angle, but not to the point of breaking myself over. I guess un-requited love can be harmful if you never experience the real deal. Anyway.

I did enjoy the book. It was an amazing read, so I will be generous and give it 4 stars. I did enjoy my time reading it and I'm so glad I gave it a chance. Colleen has a series with Ceaser and I want to read that some day. I hope it doesnt take another 40 years to do so.

نظرات در باره این کتاب بسیار متفاوته ، از [حیف وقت که برای خوندن این کتاب گذاشتم] تا [من لحظه لحظه داستان رو زندگی کردم] شاید این تفاوت بیشتر ناشی از سن خوانندگان باشه ،خودم که سالها پیش خوندم فکر میکنم اگر کسی پنجاه صفحه ابتدا رو تاب بیاره دیگر توان برزمین گذاشتنش رو نداره

O carte impresionantă!

4.5 Es una re lectura. Creo que lo leí hace unos 20 años, y debo decir que lo volví a disfrutar igual que antes.
Una historia de amor prohibido entre un ambicioso sacerdote y una joven campesina. Y es a la vez, una saga familiar de la familia Cleary. La historia se desarrolla en Australia, Roma e Inglaterra entre 1915 y 1969.
Tiene un ritmo narrativo buenísimo y muy ligero que hace que no lo puedas soltar , con personajes muy bien delineados y que te muestran todas sus caras , cero idealismos.
Le quité una estrellita porque sentí que "iba corriendo " en capítulos que me interesaban y se extendía mucho en otros no tan relevantes (en mi humilde opinión ).
Pero sin duda alguna la disfruté muchísimo.

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is a classic story about family and love. I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into when I picked up this chunky book – but yes, the importance of family and the vagaries of love predominate.

This epic covers three generations of the Cleary family. We start around 1915 with Paddy and Fee Cleary scraping a living in rural New Zealand – they are poor but manage to make do. Their progeny mushrooms into a bunch of boys and a gorgeous girl called Meggie – a main character. Paddy receives a call from an auntie in Australia running a cattle and sheep farm in remote far Northwest New South Wales. This ‘interesting’ auntie invites the family to take over the farm called Drogheda when she passes – along with her vast inheritance.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? However, it all gets a bit complicated and messy. The most interesting character for me in this story is Father Ralph de Bricassart. This character was terrible conflicted – he loves Meggie with all his heart, but his love and devotion to God – as a Catholic priest – make this love story as memorable as it gets. Father Ralph is on a trajectory that will take him to the Vatican, he's very handsome, charming, intelligent (the bastard!!) and turns heads wherever he goes.

There’s one detestable guy in this, a bloke called Luke O’Neill. This man is a tosser of the highest order – I won’t give anything away for those who haven’t read this, but I felt like shaking him. He treated my favourite character in this story deploringly. In fact, his journey also took us to Far North Queensland (even Cairns where I live). McCullough describes the intolerable humidity of FNQ perfectly – everything from the sweet smell to the suffocating moisture.

Fun Fact: BTW I thought I saw Luke O’Neill down Cairns main street the other day, I was determined to confront him but, you see - I have this dodgy knee and I’m still a little particular about social distancing, so I vehemently muttered something rude under my breath as I walked past him. He got the message alright!!!!

In addition to love and family, a third major theme here is Christianity, particularly the Catholic version. The sacrifice mere men of the cloth need to commit to is no small thing, the torment must tear many priests to bits. Hey, listen, I have only mentioned a few of the great characters here – there are many, many more – such as the acerbic Justine, the beautiful boy Dane, fighting Frank, earnest Paddy, ever so patient Rein – and so, so many more. If you read this or have read this – no doubt one or more of these characters has or will wedge themselves in your mind or heart. I’ve stuffed a couple of them in my heart that’s for sure.

The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still, we do it. Still, we do it

Doesn’t that take your breath away? McCullough’s prose here is a bit special. There were many ‘oh gosh’ instances in this epic, a few moments causing me to stop and ponder, and a couple where my heart fell through the floor. Oh man.

Stories like this aren’t just intergenerational tales about people and families. More importantly, they are stories that make us reflect on our own life, our own relationships and that is what this reading game is all about I suppose.

Just finished this book and review & it's 11pm here – I will sleep very, very well tonight indeed. Goodnight.

5 of the BIGGEST Stars

Caur vienas ģimenes vairāku paaudžu sieviešu dzīves līkločiem lieliski tiek atklāta ikdienas dzīve Jaunzēlandē un Austrālijā laika periodā no 1915. gadam līdz 1960to beigām. Austrālijas dabas skati, aitkopju dzīve milzīgajā Droedas fermā, reliģijas nozīme ģimenes dzīvē un dzimuma lomu sadalījumā sabiedrībā, ikdienas apģērbi atkarība no klimata un modes izmaiņām, kolorīti, lai arī lielākoties nepārāk tīkami tēli. Ļoti daudzslāņains darbs. Bet par to “lielisko mīlasstāstu”. Fuj.

Priesteris Ralfs laikam ir palīdzējis sabiedrībā iedzīvināt seksīgā, bet aizliegtā priestera tēlu, man gan viņš atmiņā paliks kā egoistisks viltus cietējs.
Katrā ziņā šī klasika ir lasīšanas vērta, vienīgi varbūt ne romantiskā romāna jomā, kaut šeit ir pat seksa ainas, tās vairāk kalpo par pierādījumu, ka mīlestība nevienmēr ir tāda, kā tās pašas romantiskās grāmatas iztēlo, un visbiežāk sagādā vilšanos...

This is one of the books I scorned for years. Romantic fiction - I used to think - is fluff for bimbos. Since I consider myself literate and intelligent (yeah, really!) I wouldn't touch this sort of book. Bizarrely, I was not ashamed to read even the most extreme - and extremely inane - crime fiction. ("After all, we all need to relax now and then." Hmmmph!)

Well, now I'm older and wiser and more inclined to read books for enjoyment than for the pleasure of imagining how people will be impressed when they scan my bookshelves, and since I have realised that every crime that can be imagined has been done to death already (sorry!), I have started to read books I wouldn't have touched in the past. In other words, chic lit, romantic fiction, historical fiction and the like.

And I've been discovering plenty of good reads in the process. This is one of them. It's a good story that catches your interest right from the start. It provides insights into the difficult lives of people on a big Australian farm in the last century (the 20th, I mean). As a love story it is engaging. The characters are memorable. The writing is not bad. The plot is interesting and the structure is excellent. Not a book to win literary prizes, perhaps, but a far less silly way to pass a few hours pleasantly than reading psycho-killer nonsense.

In any case, it was a famous book in its day, and I'm glad that now at last I am in a position to pass judgement on the book, rather than its readers.

n  Like this review? Why not check out my book review site: BelEdit Book Reviews?n

This was a reread for me and just as enjoyable the second time around!

I read The Thorn Birds way back in the early 80's, and remember loving it! I also watched the mini series with Richard Chamberlain...loved it too!!

Three generations of Cleary's with Meggie as the main character, and her love for the priest. All set in the Australian outback, covering the hardships of the bush....

Because of the fact that I read it so long ago, I can't remember details, therefore I will just tell you, if you love historical romance, this is a book for you!!! I will re-read this at some time in the future..