The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.

Tags

Birds, Colleen, Danielle, Drama, Love, McCullough, Romance, Saga, Steele, Thorn, Tragedy

The Thorn Birds is a saga of a singular family who leaves New Zealand to live on a vast sheep station, where their life is strike by almost every tragedy, suffering as they say enough for ten life times. A life with wonder and triumph, of suffering and pain, a land of terror drought by fire, and occasional flood (and the absence of rain for a long period of time). Most of all it is about Meggie, who falls in love with a man she cannot marry. The novel begins in 1915 and ends in 1969 which spans three generations. The story with its finely written prose and caters every human feelings and expressions makes you read the whole 692 pages in one gulp if possible.

The thickness of the novel might intimidate the suspecting reader like it did for me. For at first I wonder if I would read a Danielle Steele liked novel, and I wouldn’t want to spend my time on doing (not that I hate Steele’s work but romance novels are not my cup of tea). Halfway of Meggie’s life and her unavoidable going, the novel starts to tire me out for some reason. It’s like the story has just starts again and you just have to witness someone again. Though in the end, the conclusion has much to say and the character I thought of hating ends up being one of my favorites. It is that good that it also covers the inevitable world war, the great depression and the coming of technology. For my country to have a great significance and role during those times, I was satisfied to see it printed on the pages.

The Thorn Birds is an enjoyable read and though requires time to finished for its length, the journey itself is very much satisfying.

The novel is adapyed to a a television mini-series broadcast on ABC between March 27 and 30 of 1983.

Opening Sentence: On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday.

Last Sentence: Still we do it.