The Thorn Birds Reviews

• A timeless story of love, ambition, and struggle!

  
  By A2XRMQA6PJ5ZJ8 on 2004-04-08
  This is a truly a great and classic novel. I do not bestow these oft-overused adjectives lightly. This is a story of deep, rich, and forbidden love, betrayal, tragedy, and ambition. This is a truly wonderful story set primarily in Australia, circa 1915 and then spanning several generations to the post World War II era. McCullough writes a sprawling story which primarily centers on the forbidden love between an extraordinary woman and a good but ambitious priest.

  This is the story of the Cleary family, originally from Ireland, who emigrate first to New Zealand, and early on, to Australia. The young Cleary daughter, Meggie, falls in love with the local Catholic priest, Ralph de Briccasart, who is a good and ambitious man who certainly does nothing to encourage this love, but who certainly returns it as he regards Meggie as the daughter he can never have. As Meggie matures, he comes to regard her in a more romantic way. A great struggle arises between this love on the one hand ("the forbidden rose") and his ambition to become a Cardinal or perhaps more, on the other.

  There is much, much, more to the story than this, however. The novel transports the reader to Australia, and makes that country a real place to those of us who have never been there. This is also the story of the struggles of the Cleary family, as they battle with, and come to love, the rich outback country of Australia. This is an extraordinarily authentic and moving story that any review (or at least this one) can only fail to do justice.

  McCullough's prose is simply outstanding, and her characters crackle with realism--they become utterly real people and the reader will become swept away with this wonderful story. The storyline never drags, and at no point does this novel ever fail to completely capture the reader's attention. This novel is not only a classic; it is a ripping good read! If you have not yet enjoyed this novel, you are in for a wonderful reading experience.
  
  

• Touching, beautiful saga that leaves reader overwhelmed!

  
  By on 1999-05-22
  "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough is my favorite novel. It is in a category by itself and deserves more than five stars. I saw ten minutes of the miniseries on television and knew I had to read the book. I was twelve, and the story of Meggie and Ralph moved me to hysterical tears. I am now 18, and I have read the book so many times I have lost count. Set in the Australian Outback in the years surrounding WWII, it is the story of a girl growing up, learning that "The best is only bought at the cost of great pain...Or so says the legend." The courage and strength of Meggie despite the tremendous hardships of her life inspires me. I must admit I fell in love with Ralph de Bricassart; first with his name, then with the man. (I can only hope to find such a person!) All of the other characters--Fee, Paddy, Frank, Dane, Justine, Rain--are developed clearly throughout the story. McCullough is a genius for combining three generations of the Cleary family into one novel! I still cry when I read the story, for the love, and for the pain. The introductory story of the thornbird is a lesson for life: all sadness will pass, and one day something beautiful will come from that pain. A highly emotional book, "The Thorn Birds" is the best work of this century. It is worth reading to anyone who enjoys drama and romance, as well as suspense, action, and sadness! The movie based on the novel starring Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward is an excellent interpretation.
  
  

• The Thorn Birds--The greatest romance novel of all time

  
  By A1LLTEYPCE4IX1 on 2000-08-19
  The Thorn Birds, written by Colleen McCullough, in my opinion is the greatest romance novel of all time. The character of Meggie Cleary is my favorite character in all of literature. Her strength, beauty, passion and love makes her a timeless heroine. Meggie and Father Ralph share a love story that spans many years and many heartbreaks. Even though they are not together, the book always has a undercurrent where you can feel their longing and endless love for each other, even though they are not together. In their hearts, they will be together forever.Meggie and Ralph are the Romeo and Juliet of the Australian outback- just as tortured and tragic. The miniseries was also fabulous--Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward make me speechless every time I see it. It is spectacular. Read The Thorn Birds and watch the series, if you are lucky enough to have the chance. You will never be the same--it's not just a book or a movie, it's an experience. Thank you Colleen McCullough, for such a wonderful story.
  
  

• An Epic Love Story You Won't Want To Miss!!!

  
  By AN0XWUHSHRUG6 on 2004-07-27
  This is one of those books that you read and think "yes, I will read this one again one day." This story is epic in detail and spans three generations of the Cleary family.
  
  This is really Meggie's story. She is one of the main characters that we follow as she finds love where it is least likely to grow but is unstoppable. She falls in love with Father Ralph and the feelings despite being wrong are returned. This is really a story that will have you laughing and crying. Set in Australia in 1915 Ms. McCullough writes vividly and eloquently and you will find this a hard to put down read. This is truly a classic in every sense of the word and one that I highly recommend.
  
  

• A Grand Epic?!

  
  By A24R8J54OJA35T on 2003-12-29
  Meant to be an elegant, thrilling, enthralling story that would span the lives of a family over three generations, "The Thornbirds" begins in in 1915. The Clearys are living a harsh life in New Zealand until their fortunes are changed when a wealthy relative in Australia decides that they are to inherit part of her prosperous farm. When the family travels to Australia, they meet Father Ralph, a stunningly handsome and intriguingly mysterious priest who lives near their farm. Maggie, the only Cleary daughter, falls deeply in love with Father Ralph. He longs to return this love, but as a priest, cannot. This complicated love is the basic theme of the book; the many troubling issues that plague Maggie and the rest of her family are interwoven as well.

  In some ways, it's ironic that this book just didn't do it for me. "Gone With the Wind" is one of my favorite books, and to many people, "The Thornbirds" is a similar type of book. Both novels are long-winded, elaborate sagas, each filled what are supposed to be intriguing and unusual characters and grand settings. But most of these criteria are exactly what I felt was wrong wtih "The Thornbirds." The long descriptions (there was one description simply of Australian wildlife was FOUR pages long) were for the most part ineffective here. Occasionally, when one was to introduce a character, or explain someone's psyche, these long descriptions were necessary. But more often, they were just a pain. I often found myself bored by the profusion of information, and felt that the author was "describing" just because she enjoyed doing it.

  In addition to simply boring passages, the whole book felt very "uneven." In "Gone With the Wind," each chapter seems exciting and the book flies by. In this novel, there were there were entire parts (the book is arranged in sections) that were tiresome descriptions of everyday life. I will say that McCullough describes love scenes superbly, but reading 704 pages for a few fast-paced passages, a couple of interesting psychological revelations, and little bit of hot romance does not seem like a good trade-off.

  Finally, the characters just don't inspire. To use the same comparison, Scarlett O'Hara of "Gone With the Wind" is everything a character should. Cliche yet fresh, goddess-like yet human, harsh yet vulnerable, and supremely unpredictable and unconventional, she was always worth reading about. Yet in this book, the characters seem kind of distant. Father Ralph and Maggie don't jump off the pages, they just "stay there." This might be becuase they aren't very inspiring-they both stay in pretty much the same place (both mentally and physically) and wither with love for each other for their entire lives.

  I know I'm literally one of millions of people to take this view of "The Thorn Birds," but it's really what I think. Dull description, relatively few truly interesting parts, and unspiring characters make this book not a long and wonderful epic but simply...long.
  
  

• Warning: this novel may be dangerous to diabetics
  By A1SMFD252FTJP9 on 2006-04-22
  I sat down to read about this after hearing about it for years, and I want my week back. It only took that long because I had to push myself to finish it.
  
  SPOILERS AHEAD: Meggie and Father Ralph (who everyone always seems to refer to as Ralph de Bricassart, even when they're talking to him) meet when he is twenty-six and Meggie is...ten. She speaks, acts and thinks like a 5-year-old, though. As the years go by, Father Ralph de Bricassart becomes sort of a father figure to little Meggie, and she develops a girlish crush on him. As Meggie is also "developing a very feminine figure," Ralph comes to love her in return but realizes that their love can never be. They discuss this in approximately fifteen thousand "Don't love me, my darling, for I love you but you know our love is forbidden and can never be" conversations throughout the book. Finally, after years of smothering their passion, they do it. In a really very boring scene that's all inner ruminating and blurred descriptions. And wouldn't ya know it, she gets pregnant. Ralph de Bricassart realizes (again) that their love can never be, and leaves. Meggie has his baby, and capers about gleefully that she's "stolen" something back from God. But wouldn't ya know it, the kid (who's as angelic and one-dimensional a boy I've ever encountered in literature) decides to be a priest. So she sends him to Father Ralph de Bricassart for training, who--get this--is so totally brain dead that IT NEVER ONCE OCCURS TO HIM THAT THIS MIGHT BE HIS CHILD!!!!!!! Apparently arithmetic is not a compulsory part of training for the priesthood; this guy also misses an incredibly broad hint from Meggie, when even the other priests figure it out. The Big Secret finally does come out (again in a very brief, anticlimactic scene) toward the end, but by then we're too busy skimming to really care.
  
  All this leaves out a great many things--including immortal dialogue that makes Meggie sound perpetually ten years old ("I'll tell you something else about your roses, Ralph de Bricassart--they've got nasty, hooky thorns!"), endless, heavyhanded symbolism (ashes of roses, thorn birds...we get it! we get it!), some dumb subplot concerning a brother who is absent for 90% of the book, and one of the most unintentionally hilarious "tragic" scenes I've ever read (death by pig). Yet the Ralph-and-Meggie storyline really is the only major thing going on. And we never really get to see what it is that draws these two people together. I was expecting other subplots and development of other characters, and this never really happened. Many of the other relationships were sketchy and/or very confusing: Meggie's cruel judgment of her daughter Justine as a "monster" and a "b* tch," for example, seemed to have no basis. The last third or so involves Meggie making peace with her mother and daughter, and it just doesn't matter. The quick "the end" wrap-up would have been an even greater letdown if I'd still cared by that point. Even the most developed characters are flat and lifeless, and thoroughly unlikable. Scarlett O'Hara was selfish, but she was fun; these people are selfish and boring. Sickly-sweet quasi-romantic trash.
  
  
  
• A Wonderful Family Saga
  By on 2000-01-05
  The Thorn Birds is a wonderful family saga, which is just what I think the author intended it to be. The TV miniseries and the wonderful performances given by Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown have caused many to focus on one aspect of the book and discard many others, although just as important. I do, however, find two problems with the book. The final section is a major letdown, as the character of Justine is simply not strong enough or developed enough to evoke much empathy from readers. The second problem concerns the character of Father Ralph and his motivations. The author lets us know that Ralph is power hungry regarding his status in the Catholic Church, but she never lets us know why. As a result, we can't identify with his conflicts nor understand his choice of the Church over Meggie. Ralph comes across as far more power-mad than religious and I, for one, wanted to know why. I wanted to know more about him and his background, more about what made him who he is. Not letting us know Ralph was McCullough's big mistake and the book suffers greatly for it.
  
  
• A Heart-rending Novel
  By A3V7KLQ6R72VB8 on 2000-05-01
  The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough, begins in 1915 and spans three generations long. It is a complex story about the Cleary family that leave their home in New Zealand to live and work on a relative's extensive, Australian sheep ranch. At the ranch, the family experiences many tragedies and hardships including fires, floods, droughts, and devastating deaths of loved ones. The main character, Meggie, falls madly in love with a handsome man named Ralph. Unfortunately, Meggie is not able to marry Ralph because he is a priest. Ralph loves Meggie dearly, but has devoted his entire life to God. Throughout the novel, they experience great love and sorrow together. Meggie has children who become the third generation of the novel. The children bring her much happiness, but she still has a deep passion for Ralph in her heart. This forbidden love for Ralph will stay burning inside her soul throughout her entire life.

  I truly enjoyed how the author used a lot of description and detail in the novel. This description enabled me to paint vivid pictures of the beautiful, Australian land in my mind, as well as clear pictures of the many different characters' inner and outer appearances.

  This extraordinary love story was like an emotional rollercoaster. It twisted and turned leaving me feeling many different emotions including love, humor, sadness, anger, hate, and malice. I often found myself crying as well as laughing while I eagerly devoured every word on the page. It kept me reading and reading until the very interesting ending. I would recommend this captivating novel to anyone who is looking for a great story about life and love! I'm sure you will enjoy it just as much as I did!
  
  

• Thanks, Stephen King, For Convincing Me To Read This Book
  By A28WJUJF6D2ULA on 2005-11-30
  Not directly, never met him, but his positive comments in Danse Macabre compelled me to dig up this 1970's mega-hit when otherwise I'd probably never have done so. This novel is among my favorite works of modern fiction. Despite its being set in Australia, it reminds me a lot of the very best in US southern gothic. The tale here is much bigger than the "priest breaks vows with fetching Irish girl" that so many seem to focus on. Sure, that's an inescapable part of the plot, but what really made this story for me was its sweeping scope. The Thorn Birds begins in New Zealand in the early 20th century and concludes, after spanning the world, in Australia in modern times. Between the points of its beginning and its ending, a reader trails along on a ride that covers all that is mighty in the human experience. It is the story of one family's unlikely climb from poverty to social heights, and it is the tale of a gifted cleric whose unique communion with God is not severed by the extremes of his far-from-amoral conduct. There is much to love in The Thorn Birds, and the characters are magnificently created by the brilliant Colleen McCullough. There is passion in this book, and there is the undeniably gruesome. Tragedy is always lurking and appears when it is least expected: or wanted. Above all else there is a statement here, I think I'm correct in defining, regarding the nature of human life, and how in the end not one of us can ever achieve our fullest measure by dwelling strictly in happiness alone. This was the best sort of novel, one like Gone With The Wind, or Lonesome Dove, that took me completely by surprise with the wonders of its heights and its depths.
  
  
• An Australian Outback Saga
  By A172VEH24RRGIR on 2001-05-14
  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!
  
  

• A completly amazing novel..
  By A2PF2WYMBJGRWY on 2002-12-09
  Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds is quite honestly the best book that I have ever read and probably will ever read. This novel made me feel every emotion possible. I was clapping, smiling, and jumping up and down whenever Ralph came to Meggie at Matlock Island. I was crying for the last portion of the book, starting with Dane's death and continuing through Justine, Meggie, and Ralph's reaction. I was so angry whenever I read of Luke's mistreatment towards Meggie. I was screaming at Justine to marry Rainer. I weeped for the Cleary family whenever This is the first novel that I came to know and love the characters, and I did not want to end the story because I did not want to lose touch with the characters and their lives. McCullough did an excellent job with her descriptions and development of plot. Though many of the other reviews say McCullough is extremely verbose, she writes no unnecessary words. Every word furthers the plot along of gives us a more vivid description of the characters or their feelings. By the end of the novel, I felt as if I had lived on Drogheda. I felt as though I was in love with Ralph de Bricassart.
  I would recommend The Thorn Birds to anyone. Young and old will enjoy this read because of it's array of characters and emotions. Mothers will be able to relate to Fee and Meggie's feelings and anxieties. Young women will be able to be swept off of their feet by the romance of Meggie and Ralph, and later on, Justine and Rainer. My recommendation would extend more to a woman than to a man simply because of the romantic nature of the novel. I, as a young woman, could relate very closely to Meggie. I also feared Meggie's life as my own; not wanting to ever be in such a state of longing and pain or to be tricked into marrying a man, such as Luke O'Neill, to find myself alone, homesick, and confused of the future.
  If you would like to read an extraordinary novel which will take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions and befriend an amazing group of characters, I would suggest reading The Thorn Birds, an emotionally stimulating novel.
  
  
• We're forgetting about Justine!!!!!!!
  By AF6294WRFAT0B on 2001-09-03
  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.
  
  
• Recommendation for The Thorn Birds
  By A1288XI5LO0J76 on 2004-04-01
  The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough is a novel that seems to include every genre from romance to historical fiction and even tragedy. The story follows the lives of the members of a family through a full generation. This results in the development of many characters, and there is probably at least one that almost any person can relate to. One thing notable about the book is its amazing attention to detail. This was a cause of both my like and dislike for the novel. The detail is well-written enough to leave an image in the mind of the reader upon completion of a passage, a quality not all books have. On the other hand, the detail can be monotonous and cause the reader to lose interest. The latter is much less common, and the story kept me interested throughout.

  This novel seems to be directed at women, and I doubt if many male readers would enjoy it. I would recommend it to women high school age and older. However, because the story involves many relationships, I recommend that the reader is not completely opposed to the romance genre. Even readers who would not normally choose a romance novel would still enjoy this book because it includes so much more.
  
  

• MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE LOVE STORY ... I LAUGHED AND CRIED! BITTERSWEET!
  By A3MFU0GVZUVH3K on 2006-04-13
  I've read this book four times through the years since I first bought it. The love between the two main characters, though a forbidden love, is so beautiful and magical it made me cry for Meggy and Father Ralph.
  
  Not only is this an unforgettable love story, it's also a great education about sheep farming in Australia. Magnificent description of a then harsh land. The dialogue is believable, the characters so very real ... I didn't simply read this book, I experienced it. When the characters laughed, I laughed, and when they cried, my heart broke for them.
  
  Poor little Meggy ... poor father Ralph. How bittersweet and memorable.
  
  I really can't get over the quality of this book and the sensitivity of the author.
  
  Review by Betty Dravis, author of a new epic love story, 1106 GRAND BOULEVARD
  
  
• Life's biggest lessons..
  By A3QEVCQUP91PY3 on 2007-01-16
  Never in my literary life (and it is indeed an extensive and highly varied life) have I ever loved a book quite so much, or in quite so many ways.
  I currently own 5 copies of this book and have read it in excess of 30 times. (I stopped counting after that.) Yet, no matter how many times I read it, I still see something new, see a new twist on a thought, action or emotion.
  I have found there to be a facet of nearly ever lesson we humans learn in life...the brightest and the ugliest sides of every emotion are all so wonderfully present in this book. Over the years, it has taught me not only how others feel and think, love and hate, live and die..but so much about how I do all of those things myself, some that perhaps I may never have seen in quite such a light without an aid.
  I'm certainly not saying this book is the end all, be all for every one, nothing can be...but I certainly think it's time well spent for everyone, even if it's nothing more than to enjoy a sweeping drama that encompasses 3 generations and characters as varied and well written as you could want.
  
  
• Admirable Effort
  By on 2000-04-25
  This book is so bittersweet - isn't that the way of life? Ms. McCullough has weaved an intricate, captivating tale. The story was extremely compelling, dramatic, and tragic. The cursed love affair of Meggie and Ralf digs at the thorns all readers surely have in their own sides. As a Protestant, I was enthrawlled by the spiritual issues grappled with through Catholic theology. I so admire Ms. McCullough taking on such an epic story that it pains me to give it only 3 stars, but I did for the following reasons: 1. The last third of the book falls flat as the climax (Ralf and Meggie) occured too soon and Justine couldn't hold it together on her own. 2. I am a huge fan of description and detail, but the detail in this book became tedious at times. 3. Because the book spanned 60 years, it was hard at times for me to feel connected to the characters when say 8 years had passed without any knowledge of what had been going on in their lives. But on the whole, a very admirable effort!
  
  
• A thinking man's romance
  By on 1999-03-13
  Although it is romantic fiction, The Thorn Birds is also an unusually intelligent meditation on love, fate and God. The book asks us to consider how much of life is the the result of the choices we've made, and how much of it is determined long before we are born. Something inborn (instinct?) compels McCullough's legendary birds to impale themselves upon the longest, sharpest thorns that they can find. But when we do the same, "we know, we understand, and still we do it." Indeed we do, but that doesn't stop Meggie from wrestling with God on the question, or for blaming him for many of her misfortunes. By the novel's end, Meggie concludes that she essentially lived the life she chose, much as Ralph did. She is able to make her peace with God. The same can't be said for Ralph, who has used God as instrument of his ambition. What's also interesting is the way that history repeats itself in the book. Like her mother, Meggie marries a man she doesn't love, bears a child by the man she does love, redirects her love for the father to the child, selfishly ignores her other child, and then -- as if by punishment -- loses the beloved child to a tragic and untimely death. Fate? Bad luck? Or the seeds of dysfunction passing from one generation to the next? The Thorn Birds uses the conventions of romance to as some pretty compelling questions. There's a lot more here than meets the eye.
  
  
• Excellent depiction of rural Australia, but so-so melodrama
  By on 1999-10-29
  It looks like I am the first reader to not find this book a 5-star page-turner. Since I like reading about rural and frontier life, I very much enjoyed the early part of the book which richly describes the Cleary's lives (both their emotional lives and their day-to-day trials) in New Zealand and their first years in Australia. But the plot got less and less credible after the demise of Mary Carson and the departure of Ralph from the scene, and at least for me, the story just deteriorated into a mediocre soap opera. Perhaps as a result of being Jewish and having grown up within a warm, ebullient and highly emotional family, it was hard for me to relate to Fee's stoic living dead manner, or see any higher, spiritual element in Meggies' love affair with Ralph. Basically this struck me as a story of 3 generations of somewhat dysfunctional women. Fee was very much a victim of her times, but once the family inherited some money Meggie at least had choices, which she never exercised. Far from inspiring, the hopeless infatuation between Ralph and Meggie had essentially hardened into a bad habit that, thanks to the emotional sterility of their everyday lives, neither one of them was motivated to break.
  
  
• A Fairytale Novel
  By A2PVMJSX6WJ4C4 on 2001-11-05
  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.
  
  

• Classify under "Romance"
  By A3FBU2QDUN0KFQ on 2003-10-15
  If you're looking for a long, romantic yarn, this is a pretty decent one. The writing is quite good--you can feel the dust and heat of Australia, as it works its way under your skin. And you feel for the protagonist; you feel for a woman who has few options in life, and who's life is inevitably chained to one man or another.

  Although I'm very sympathetic to this position, I felt a little bit lost inside of this woman's mind, and felt that her men were caricatures, rather than developed characters. I wanted to be a part of her thinking, but this bias in the writing threw me off.

  In the end, after hundreds of pages and a bit too much saga, we are to rejoice that her chains have become easier. It's a little hard to swallow. I don't think this qualifies as a feminist work. I'd tell men to skip this one altogether, and advise readers that this is, ultimately, just a well-written romance novel, for better or for worse.
  
  

• The Thorn Birds--Enough said
  By on 2000-06-27
  When my mother held out her favorite book with pride, all I could think was "That thing must weigh about as much as I do!" However, the 560 pages of this phenomenal novel fly by as the reader becomes engrossed in the lives of the realistic characters. McCullough demonstrates incredible talent by focusing on so many main characters and developing them as in depth as she does. The reader literally becomes absorbed in the lives of Meggie, Ralph, Paddy, Fee, Luke, Bob, Frank, Jack, Stu, Jims, Patsy, Dane, Justine, and Rain. Although this may sound intimidating to someone who has never read the book, it is easy to follow. I think people become absorbed in this book because they can relate to it. We all have to struggle for the price of happiness. McCullough says it best..." 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 in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it." This novel will definitely give the reader a fresh perspective on what drives humans in their lives.
  
  
• What a GREAT book!
  By A3B5CW2F3K1UZX on 2000-01-30
  I just finished reading "The thorn birds" for the 4th time (twice in Russian and twice in English), my eyes are still full of tears... The story of Meggie is so incredible and SO sad at the same time. She is such a strong woman, I don't think I can ever be like her. This book always makes me think about my life and people I love. I highly recommend "The thorn birds" for anyone who's looking for a good book to read. .
  
  
• One of the greatest love stories ever
  By AGRTP6NHTJ5UF on 1999-12-03
  From the second I picked up The Thorn Birds I could not put it down. It is truly one of the greatest love stories ever written. I have read it many times since, and it remains one of my all time favorites. Every time I finish I'm sad to finish.
  
  
• Wonderful, but often not understood
  By on 1999-01-18
  I've read "The Thorn Birds" many times, and as I've matured I appreciate McCollough's reflections on God much more than the romantic aspect. We Americans are a notoriously parochial bunch, but in reading, I found that we and Aussies have much in common: we are bold and heavily of Irish descent to name a few. I think Americans and Aussies have taken all of the good qualities of the British and maxed most of the bad ones.

  Although many think that Ralph was a wonderful man, I think he one of the two-faced charmers that Ireland produces in abundance. I think that he emotionally took advantage of Meggie's loneliness when she was a little girl to combat his own loneliness. Considering his wit, charm and stunning looks, coupled with the fact that she saw almost no one outside the family, Ralph would have had to have been a moron not to expect that she wouldn't fall for him. But he didn't want to face up to what he'd done. He'd have been a jerk even if he hadn't swindled the Clearys out of their inheritance. While he is still a character deserving of sympathy, he's also shamelessly self-interested and I think that Richard Chaimberlain didn't capture that quality. He was also a disgrace to the priesthood since he was far more interested in moving up in the Church than in serving God. I'm not religious, but I think that every profession has a code of ethics. Even if Ralph hadn't broken all his vows, he would have still conducted himself unethically. The highly-touted mini-series was basically a bodice-ripper and is light-years away from the book.
  
  

• A Gripping Story
  By AIZ34ERGFBDJY on 2000-10-12
  The Thorn Birds is a gripping love story involving two characters that are never able to claim their love for each other. Meggie Cleary and Father Ralph have deep feelings for one another but they are unable to show these feelings because Father Ralph is unable to be involved with a girl in that manner due to his career. The novel is about the life of three generations in the Cleary family. Mainly the novel focuses on the passion between Ralph and Meggie. It shows the enternal heartbreak that can come of loving the unlovable. Along with the heartbreak that Meggie deals with on a daily basis, there are also tramas in her everyday life that keep her spinning in every direction. Yet, somehow she is able to continue on in her life.

  Meggie is a strong character and from reading this book, I can relate to her struggles. She was just a child when she was thrown into the adult world and was expected to adjust. Throughout the book the reader is able to share her feelings, whether they may be good or bad. Meggie has many strengths in her life. She is able to cope with almost anything that is thrown at her. When she was only a teenager, she held the responsibility of caring for her baby brother because her mother was much to busy to pay any attention to him. Meggie's main weakness is her ever-growing love for Father Ralph. She is unable to let her love for him die, therefore causing her great pain.

  Colleen McCullough uses the title The Thorn Birds for a very specific purpose I think. A thorn bird is a symbol of someone who is jabbed many times with problems and dilemmas constantly, but yet is able to come out on top. The bird is singing and gets stuck with a thorn. The bird does not stop singing, but instead sings whole-heartedly until it's dying breath. This is just like Meggie and the other characters in the novel. They get problems upon problems piled on them, but they never complain about any of it. They silently work their way through it accepting any consequences that may come along with it. The live like the thorn birds by never complaining about the bad in their lives, but only working to make it better and dying knowing that there was not much more that could be done.

  I really enjoyed this book. I was so interesting that I just couldn't stop reading it. It was a book that I just couldn't put it down. It takes a lot for me to like a book, but this is just one of the books that within the first chapter I loved it. I hope that other people were able to enjoy it as much as I did. I recommend it to anyone looking to read a good book.
  
  

• A great story, a great novel, a great real life experience
  By AWK4J6KDXWFGJ on 2000-10-21
  This book was really a great book to read. I found it to be so realistic about a family spanning over three generations. The physical conflicts, as well as the emotional turmoil, has touched me. The story about a young women named Megghan, a priest named Ralph. A story about a women who can't marry a man she loves, and then takes the only thing she could of him. The story of a young man being the only precious son of Megghans mother, the only memory of a former lover. This was very appealing to me because it shows the life of heartbreak and romance in cycle after cycle. Family ties being revealed, and broken. The ending was so well written that it started me having to think of the realism and how it applies to my own life.As from other books I've read, it combines the mini-story detail of Ray Salisbury's"The Blue Skin of the Sea" with the deep emotions of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" None, however, can compare with the wellness McCullough mixes the character's internal and external conflicts into such an elaborate novel of emotional affection.
  
  
• The evils of sacrifice and religion
  By AMN4WRQMT6HD9 on 2002-05-03
  This was a fascinating look at the result of sacrificing your life for religion. For those of us who believe that living a flourishing life here on earth is not only possible, but profoundly moral - this book reconfirms that sacrifice (giving up a greater value for something of lesser or no value) brings guilt, pain, sadness and an overall sense of loss. Beautifully written, this book follows the lives of people consumed with guilt, remorse and hopelessness. From that, they become strong, but happiness eludes them. Many times during my reading of this book I wanted to shout to the characters "I'm happy! You can also be happy! Stop sacrificing, evading and living for false values! Stop hurting yourself and those around you!"

  This book beautifully shows the destruction of lives caused by religion and sacrifice.
  
  

• Spends too little time on most interesting characters
  By A362P58ZBWSWA8 on 2003-03-12
  While this 50-year look at a family's loves and losses is interesting at times, McCullough spends too little time on the most interesting characters and relationships and too much time on mundane details or on her attempts at being poetic and/or artistic. In the end, this novel is just not as well executed as it could/should have been. Several passages about love and/or lovemaking are labored and unnatural, and McCullough lets interesting people like Frank and Luke practically drop off the face of the earth. While Meggie and Ralph's relationship thrilled me at first, it became annoying after Meggie had Dane. Ralph was far too self-absorbed and his suffering seemed far too superficial for him to be a truly interesting character. Most of all, I wanted to learn more about Justine and Rainer, whose relationship received a light treatment though it is the true finale for the book.

  Had the quality of writing been a little better, the characters and relationships been a little more developed, and the observations of people and life been more astute, the engaging storyline could have carried this novel into greatness. Instead, it kept me only semi-satisfied right up to the last page.
  
  

• Oh, Frank, my darling, misunderstood, forgotten Frank!
  By A1PEO8T68DM9YU on 2003-09-21
  This novel is, in a word, mystifying. Mc'Cullough's style is, at some times, brilliantly poetic and beautiful, and at many others, extremely tedious. Her almost exclussive focus on Meggie and Ralph was annoying, and extremely one-sided; even though they are the main characters, it would have been refreshing to hear from the minds, as well as the lips, of people such as Paddy, Frank, and Dane, much more often than was the case. And speaking of Frank, as one can probably tell from the title of this review, he was my favorite character; I could relate to him most of all, despite never having been in prison. Did anyone else feel the urge to hold and comfort him as much as I did? My high level of empathy for him stems from the fact that he is, unlike so many males in contemporary literature, truly sensitive, compassionate, and idealistic, beyond the pursuit of monitary success (see Luke O'Niel for a portrayal of the power and money-obssessed egotist archetype). I thought the most romantic and touching sceens in the book were not between Meggie and Ralph (at least, not as older adults), but between the young Meggie and Frank, her misunderstood, despised, beautiful older brother. In contrast to Frank's, and Meggie's (as a child) softness, Justine, whose childhood was neglected so much that her decisions in later life seem to have no basis or logic to them, seemed overly heartless, impulsive, and, in spite of appearances, extremely insecure. Justine was so ascerbic and emotionally afraid that she was almost a characiture of the self-absorbed, overly dramatic, restless modern teenager struggling to break loose from tradition. Meggie, who I could relate to in early life, until she began her relationship with Luke, seemed more believable, in most situations, than many feminine characters in today's literature. Unlike them, she was not always stowical in the face of adversity, which reveals a true emotional center and capacity for great depth of feeling. Ralph had this as well, in spite of his ambition, and deference to the church's regulations; the reader has to keep in mind the time period and atmosphere of the culture in which Mc'Cullough's characters are placed. It was a stifling, rule-bound society. As for my point about the author being tedious, her inclusion of conversations between Ralph and his superiors, especially Cardinal Vitorio and Mary Carson, seemed more fitting for a political thriller and a true romance novel, respectively. Perhaps it is because in only a recent high school graduate who had the audacity to read this seven-hundred pager in four days because I just had to finish it, but I could not understand the intended humor or subtleties in their dialogues. Also, I disliked the subtle, but clear implication and portrayal of Maori people in the book. An Australian friend told me about the stereotype of Maori men as violent, uncontrollable miscreants, and after reading the description of Frank's eventual personality, and the diagnosis by friends of the family, I resent Mc'Cullough's idea on tne subject, considering Frank's first introduction as a compassionate, caring young man. (This, of course, could simply be my psychology classes working over time, and I could be overanalyzing Frank's character, and defaming Mc'Cullough needlessly), and it seems to me like a case of sensitive young man is mistreated horribly by society, and crushed by their insensitivity to his condition. In any case, Frank is still, to me, the little boy who needs protection and nurture, not to mension understanding and a realistic way to externalize his rage and other strong emotions. On the up side, though, Mc'Cullough has a definite talent for descriptions of the Australian landscape, as well as, when aplicable, the motives and exact nature of her characters's emotions. And, just to end on emotion, Fionna's relationship to Paddy, and all the other characters was never fully realized, and Stewart's contemplative tendencies never explained, and I would have loved to know more of Fi's life with Pakeha, what attracted her to him, etc. And, as I said, more Frank and young Meggie, and descriptions of their life in New Zealand in general would always have been appreciated!
  
  
• The Book is Better Than the TV Movie
  By A38H03YNBHQ8NY on 2003-10-03
  Having been a long-time fan of The Thorn Birds mini-series on TV, I finally got around to reading the book. And am I very glad I did. McCullough's prose provides readers with an incredible amount of background of both Australia and the characters that no movie could ever match. The book delves into the minds of many of the main characters, giving readers a better sense of their inner-selves, what makes each of them tick. Perhaps the best insight focuses on Father Ralph de Bricassart and Meggie Cleary. Ralph's battle between loving God and Meggie is explored in a manner that makes his anguish truly believable. Likewise, Meggie's anger at God for withholding from her the men sho loves most is detailed in a way that readers can identify with her plight, too. Information of the true character of hardened, undemonstrative Fiona Cleary, Meggie's mother, is trickled into the plot throughout the entire book. Meggie's children, Justine and Dane, allow the plot to progress to it's expected, bittersweet ending. The Drogheda sheep station is another important character, providing the characters a stable home they can always come back to. Which they all do, time and again. A strong cast of secondary characters adds to the real-life quality of this sad tale. This book is a true modern classic and a must read for anyone who loves lengthy, well-written historical fiction.
  
  

• The Thorn Birds
• The Thorn Birds Collector's Edition (The Thorn Birds / The Thorn Birds 2 - The Missing Years)
• Gone With the Wind
• Gone with the Wind
• Tim