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A review by plantladyreader
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
4.0
This was a family saga set in the Australian Outback spanning over half a century, following the Cleary family as they move from New Zealand to the vast sheep station Drogheda in Australia. We first meet the family as they are struggling to make ends meet and feed all the mouths in their family. Fiona is constantly pregnant, but struggles to connect with any of their children except Frank, the eldest son, and the father Paddy seems gruff and distant as he works to keep food on the table. As the family grows and moves to Australia, we follow the hardworking men as they keep Drogheda profitable, while Fiona and Meggie keep a home with Paddy's rich older sister, Mary. The focus of this story is mainly on the only daughter, Meggie, as she catches the eye of Father Rather de Bricassart, and we follow the relationship between the two of them as it grows. This story spans droughts, fires, horrible marriages, grandchildren and World War Two, keeping the story from becoming a bit dull.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Thorn Birds. With it being such a large book centred entirely around one family and mainly, one daughter, I was worried I would find this a slow-paced chore to read. I was very pleasantly surprised. The book is broken into seven sections, with a new character being the focus of that section, but they all still seem to wrap around to Meggie, and we are still able to follow her journey.
Meggie is a character who I can relate to on some levels. While she's the only daughter of Fiona and Paddy, she idolizes her older brother Frank and wants to be more involved in helping the men on the farm, as opposed to sitting inside "keeping a home". She turns out to be a very resilient woman, but has to encounter a lot of trials and hardships until she grows into that woman, which definitely kept me interested in reading about her. While her suffering was difficult to read about at times, I really enjoyed her growth, and in the end she ends up getting what she wanted. Her life does not end in entire happiness, but she does learn to be thankful for what she has and accepting of her fate.
This book may be a bit intimidating, but it did not feel like a long read, and I was constantly wanting to read on to discover what was going to happen.
4
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Thorn Birds. With it being such a large book centred entirely around one family and mainly, one daughter, I was worried I would find this a slow-paced chore to read. I was very pleasantly surprised. The book is broken into seven sections, with a new character being the focus of that section, but they all still seem to wrap around to Meggie, and we are still able to follow her journey.
Meggie is a character who I can relate to on some levels. While she's the only daughter of Fiona and Paddy, she idolizes her older brother Frank and wants to be more involved in helping the men on the farm, as opposed to sitting inside "keeping a home". She turns out to be a very resilient woman, but has to encounter a lot of trials and hardships until she grows into that woman, which definitely kept me interested in reading about her. While her suffering was difficult to read about at times, I really enjoyed her growth, and in the end she ends up getting what she wanted. Her life does not end in entire happiness, but she does learn to be thankful for what she has and accepting of her fate.
This book may be a bit intimidating, but it did not feel like a long read, and I was constantly wanting to read on to discover what was going to happen.
4