Tim

Confesso que não estava nada à espera de gostar tanto deste livro. Ainda gostei mais do que o Pássaros Feridos.

A história é simples e a premissa foi bem colocada. A leitura deste livro leva-nos a reflectir sobre um assunto tabu. Será um verdadeiro amor ou um amor por pena? Quero acreditar que seja amor e que ambos sabem o que sentem.
Apesar de Tim ter um atraso, isso não o impede de amar. Ser doente não significa não ter direito de amar e hoje em dia, estar ou ser doente significa viver sob a pena da sociedade. Eles também têm o direito de ser felizes e de amar e ser amados.
No fim do livro há uma situação que deixa Mary encavacada, no entanto não a magoa - mas eu fiquei. Como é que há pessoas tão mal intencionadas. Não julguem as pessoas pela aparência ou pela sua incapacidade. Conheçam-nas primeiro antes de julgarem.7

Opinião no blog
http://devaneiosdatim.blogspot.pt/201...

With the recent passing of Colleen McCullough and seeing her novel 'Tim' on the Kindle Daily Deals, I thought it was time I read one of her books. Most people have heard of 'The Thorn Birds' however up until now I haven't read any of her books.

When I started reading 'Tim' I noticed my edition had been published in 2000 so I was expecting a reasonably recent setting. What I didn't realise was this novel had been originally published in 1974 so the language used was not what I was expecting. I should have guessed with the novel starting out with two women emptying their chamber pots - not a present day occurrence in Sydney.

At the time Colleen was writing this, I was a young boy in mid-primary school. I had forgotten that the values and beliefs of the day were different to what they are now. For example I found the constant use of the word retard disturbing, the addressing of adults as Mr, Miss or Mrs strange, women in their forties having grey hair and being considered old not making sense (I realise that women in their forties still have grey hair, they just cover it up better these days) and the ockerisms just didn't sit right with me. But then I realised the setting was in the early seventies and that the character Mary Horton would be three years older than my mother was at the time. As such, I was able to feel comfortable with the setting and the style of writing.

The main story is about the love that develops between Mary, a 43 year old spinster, and Tim, a young man with the body of a Greek god but the IQ of a child. There are other love stories within the book, the love of Tim's parents for each other, the friendship of Mary and her employer and the caring nature of Mary's neighbour.

On the surface, Mary seemed to be the one constantly giving of herself with Tim taking from her however without Tim, Mary would not have grown and flourished from her grey world to a world of colour. Mary had to overcome the prejudices of the time but when I think of it, they are still the prejudices of today. The only thing that has changed is the need to marry to maintain respectability. The age difference and the perception of taking advantage of a disabled person remains.

It is a story of the innocence and vulnerability of Tim and the pure intentions of others clashing with prejudice and their natural instincts, however buried they may have been. The intentions were not always the right ones but they were always intended in the best interest of Tim. I found jealousy to be an emotion that was explored in several places - the jealousy of Tim's sister of the attention given to Tim and Tim's jealousy of the attention Mary gave to his father.

Colleen McCullough had me hooked right from the first page. I can't remember the last time I finished an average sized novel in a matter of hours but I did it with this one.

I finished the book infused with a feeling of warmth and love. I have a fair bit of the cynic in me and tend to erect barriers between myself and the outside world but this book left me feeling good. A lot like that warm blanket you pull up around your ears on a cool, crisp morning.

I feel sad that we have lost Colleen and are deprived of more of her words and stories. Where do all those unwritten stories go, the ones that were floating around in her imagination? Such a loss.

We should be grateful however that we have the ones we do and they will live on in her memory. I will be reading more of her books.

Tim, Colleen McCullough

It portrays the story of the developing relationship between an older, middle-class woman, Mary Horton, who lives on her own and a handsome, developmentally impaired 24-year-old gardener, Tim Melville, whom she hires. It inspired the 1979 film of the same name, starring Piper Laurie and Mel Gibson and the 1996 Film Mary & Tim starring Candice Bergen and Tom McCarthy.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و چهارم ماه آگوست سال1999میلادی

عنوان: با تو شاید؛ نویسنده: کالین مک کالو؛ مترجم: مریم مفتاحی؛ تهران، شیرین، سال1377؛ در296ص؛ شابک9645564220؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان استرالیا - سده20م

نام رمان: «تیم» است، و نخستین رمان از این بانوی نویسنده ی «استرالیا»، و یک عاشقانه ی دیگرگونه است؛ نویسنده میگویند: (من همیشه رمانهایی مینویسم، که موضوعش ویژه باشد؛ دوست ندارم بنویسم: پسری دختری را دید، عاشقش شد؛ پسر دختر را از دست داد، یا اینکه پسر دختر را به دست آورد؛ همیشه نوشته هایم، نه برای انتشار؛ بلکه برای رضایت دل خودم است)؛ در این داستان «مری»، زن چهل و پنج ساله ی تنهایی است، که زندگی و شرایط مالی خوبی دارد؛ او هرگز ازدواج نکرده، و هرگز هم عاشق کسی نشده، و یا سعی نکرده که عاشق کسی شود، و «تیم»، پسر زیبای بیست و پنج ساله ای است، که کند ذهنی، و زیبائیش، او را از دیگران سوا کرده است؛ رابطه ی دوستانه ای بین آنها شکل میگیرد و...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 24/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 12/01/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Wow... There is so much that I want to say about this book, and I don't know if I will really be able to do it all justice. I think I'm just going to go for my tried and true method and just ask you to tag along with my ramblings... Hopefully it will make sense at the end. :)

On the surface, "Tim" is a story of an unlikely relationship between a child-like 25 year old mentally disabled man, the title character, and a 43 year old straight-laced and emotionally distant spinster, Mary Horton. Naturally, their relationship is mutually beneficial, with each of them teaching the other how to live.

But the surface story, while absolutely moving and beautiful, is just the bottom layer of the cake. McCullough supplements that base with layer upon layer of detail and depth and insight and truth. While the finished product by another author may have been a tasty and even nice looking cake, in McCullough's expert hands it's something too amazing to actually mar by eating it. You want to keep this cake. You want to cherish it and remember every beautiful detail of it.

We're introduced to Tim, and from the beginning he's impossible not to love and want to protect. Tim's child-like innocence is what really broke my heart. He is tricked and fooled by his "friends", and is upset afterward, but not because he was tricked. His is not a knee-jerk reaction to being laughed at that causes him distress, it is the fact that he knows that he is not able to understand WHY he is being laughed at that distresses him. He seeks acceptance and understanding and love just like we all do.

All of us, that is, except Mary Horton. From the age of 14, she struggled and worked hard on her own to make a life for herself. Unfortunately, due to having a very hard childhood, her idea of "life" is one devoid of any personal relationships. She's never had a boyfriend, never wanted one, doesn't have any personal friends, and her only pleasures are solitary ones, her successes are material ones.

After a chance meeting with Tim, who fascinates her simply because of his sheer attractiveness, they each begin to fill a hole in the other person's life that neither knew they had. This isn't recognized until much later, but it warmed my heart to see them teaching each other what life is really about.

McCullough's descriptions of emotion and perception of the world is amazing. I'm not sure I've ever read anything like it. Her way with words is brilliant. It's like she's imparting secrets that you already knew, but just couldn't understand because the words are just words without MEANING. Even sitting here writing this, I'm at a loss to describe just what it is that touched me so deeply, but I'm close to tears just thinking about the way that she makes simple concepts turn into life-altering truths.

But more than that, she made me think of things in a way that I would never have thought of before. For instance, at one point when Tim is sleeping, Mary ponders what his dreams are like: Did he venture forth as limited in his nocturnal wanderings as he was during his waking life, or did the miracle happen which freed him from all his chains?

I had to stop and think about this. On the one hand, dreaming that you are not fettered by a mental handicap would lend the dreams a wonderful freedom, but on the other, I would imagine that waking up to realize that that freedom was only an illusion would be torture day after day. So, I hope that is not the case.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about McCullough's writing was its vividness. Her characters are just ALIVE and jump off the page. Their local slang and way of speaking had me laughing even while I had tears in my eyes, because while the phrases they use are hilarious, what they are actually saying is true in any language.

The characters are memorable, and none of them, not one, pulls any punches. I love that they say what they mean, and mean what they say. Brutally honest, perhaps, but if what needs to be said is important enough, sometimes it takes a brutal delivery to make it sink in.

I also loved the little snippets of Australian life and culture we get to see. I love reading about other cultures and people, and the only thing that I wish was extended was the small section dealing with the Australian bush. I wanted to see the people and find out how Mary would interact with them.

Anyway. I loved this book. I'm immensely glad that I read it, and can safely say that I will soon be reading much, much more of McCullough's writing.

Tim Melville tem vinte e cinco anos, a beleza de um deus grego e a idade mental de uma criança - é um "mal acabado", um "atrasado mental". Mary Horton é uma solteirona na casa dos quarenta, pragmática, inteligente, austera, rígida e rica. Entre ambos nasce uma amizade improvável, que se vai solidificando, cada um aprendendo com o outro novas perspectivas e experiências de vida. Até que a relação chega a um ponto crítico e sofre uma mudança qualitativa. Nem tudo na história é de uma plausibilidade imediata, mas a sensibilidade e a doçura com que aborda um tema delicado - a diferença e a imperfeição e a sua plena aceitação por outrem - é impossível não nos tocar. O romance não está perto de ser perfeito e achei que o final se arrasta um pouco demais, mas (falo por mim) põe-nos a pensar e a tomar consciência de ideias pré concebidas e totalmente não alicerçadas que se calhar albergamos sem sequer nos apercebermos.

● "Jis nesuprato, kas čia juokinga. O taip norėjo suprasti ir juoktis kartu su visais. Tai buvo jo didžiausia širdgėla, kad niekados negali suprasti."
● "Kartais mes pamilstame žmones, kuriuos sutinkame, kartais nepamilstame žmonių, kuriuos sutinkame, bet juos pažinti yra pats svarbiausias dalykas gyvenime, per tai ir esame žmonės."
● "Kartais didžiausi atstumai yra niekis, galvojo jinai, jie sumažėja iki trumpučio tylos mirksnio tarp dviejų širdies dūžių."

Šis romanas mano namuose atsidūrė netikėtai, bet kaip aš džiaugiuosi, kad tai įvyko! Nuostabi knyga, pasakojanti apie labai jautrius dalykus - santykius tarp brandžios moters ir už ją jaunesnio vyro, kuris turi protinį sutrikimą. Tačiau tai ne tik kūrinys apie santykius, bet ir apie nuoširdžią draugystę, pagalbą, norą rūpintis ir globoti, kai likęs pasaulis atsuka nugarą arba siaubingai šaiposi. Kadangi romanas originaliai parašytas 1974 m., rašytojai puikiai pavyko atspindėti tuometinės visuomenės požiūrį į tokį žmogų kaip Timą - nuvertinimą.
Nuo pirmų puslapių labai patiko stebėti, kaip Timas susipažįsta su Mere ir kaip po truputį ima rutuliotis jų draugystė, su kokiais sunkumais susiduria ir kaip pasaulį suvokia Timas. Taip pat autorė privertė susimąstyti, kiek daug vienas žmogus gali turėti įtakos mūsų gyvenimui ir kaip stipriai galime būti emociškai prisirišę - labai gražiai ir įdomiai paaiškintos mirties ir gyvenimo temos, santykių prasmė.
Vienintelis trūkumas - norėjosi kiek išbaigtesnės pabaigos, bet šis romanas tikrai puikus. Labai patiko ir tikrai rekomenduoju

Tim Melville is a twenty-five year old labourer who is “not the full quid” (as he describes himself), yet he has the body and face of a Greek God. Mary Horton is forty-three, an emotionally brittle woman who lives alone in an upmarket Sydney suburb with no plans to let anybody into her inner sphere. They meet by chance one summer morning and so unfolds a touching story of friendship and ultimately love in 1970s suburbia.

Similar to The Thorn Birds, this is a book I first read as a teenager and hadn’t re-read for many years. Yet as soon as I started reading it again for the AWW2012 challenge, I remembered why I initially loved it so much. I think what I enjoyed the most about it was its simplicity – it is a much smaller book than the Thorn Birds with many less elements (and characters), yet it draws you in just as much (maybe ever more). Tim is actually Colleen McCullough’s first novel, written several years before The Thorn Birds.

The authors skill in depicting Australia and Australian people is what first shines in this story. The opening scene is a building site on a suburban house in the 1970s and you are immediately transported there – from the references of “smoko” and the “old girl” living next door – it is just right on the money. She also perfectly captures dialogue (some of which has changed since the 1970s) but totally accurate for that time. I really loved some of the sayings of Mary’s boss Archie – in fact his reference to ‘Sweet Bartlett Pears’ gave me flashbacks to my childhood and the brown tin the pears used to come in (anybody else remember that??).The other thing that shines is how Colleen McCullough captures everyday people – in this case an average, working class family.

You can almost feel the walls coming down from Mary brick by brick as she realises that Tim is so uncomplicated that there is nothing for her to fear. Her horrible childhood has taught her not to trust people, but through Tim she learns that skill. To everybody else she is plain and uninteresting, but to Tim she is beautiful and exciting – and that knowledge ignites the spirit buried deep inside her and makes her realise that she is worthy of being loved.

Tim is an unconventional love story that will make you realise there is good in the world and that ultimately everybody wants to be loved – in whatever way works for them. A simple but compelling book Tim is definitely worth a read.