Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough, A Book Review by Rebecca Moll
Few writers can fictionalize history like Colleen McCullough. Careful to truth, hours of research, McCullough took the raw lines of history and created a story that mesmerizes, compels, and inspires. For it is the trials of our forefathers that bear us up above and beyond today’s troubles.
When troubled, I often think of my Grandma Sawyers, born in 1902, and the arduous task of just putting food on the table. Not to mention laundry. Polio. The Spanish Flu. The Great Depression. No tv. No cell phone. No Google. No car. No modern medicine. he was courageous. Not only did she and her family survive, but they thrived.
Generations and generations. I think of her and then, suddenly, my burden is lighter. I can focus on what I can do and forget about what I can’t do.
Morgan’s Run is the account of one man’s life, Richard Morgan, a testament to one of Britain’s worst experiments, an ostracized penal colony, true to the cruelty of the 18th century and Her Majesty’s iron fist. Yet, it is also one of overcoming odds, forging one’s way through an unfair and unjust world, and making something out of nothing. Or, out of wilderness.
New South Wales. Norfolk Island. A vast wilderness. Ships laden with convicts, convicts rendered dispensable. And despite the immense odds, Richard Morgan not only survived, but thrived. It is an amazing story in itself, but given McCullough’s pen, it became a great novel. Characters come to life and you find yourself amongst the many trees felled, the soldiers, sailors and convicts, their wives and lives, the crash and heave of an angry sea, chaos and crime. Yet, somehow order is established, freedom afforded. And, with the grace of courage, hope is born.
Settled next to other McCullough favorites, Morgan’s Run is destined for a permanent place upon my bookshelves. I look forward to a second reading in the years to come.
When troubled, I often think of my Grandma Sawyers, born in 1902, and the arduous task of just putting food on the table. Not to mention laundry. Polio. The Spanish Flu. The Great Depression. No tv. No cell phone. No Google. No car. No modern medicine. he was courageous. Not only did she and her family survive, but they thrived.
Generations and generations. I think of her and then, suddenly, my burden is lighter. I can focus on what I can do and forget about what I can’t do.
Morgan’s Run is the account of one man’s life, Richard Morgan, a testament to one of Britain’s worst experiments, an ostracized penal colony, true to the cruelty of the 18th century and Her Majesty’s iron fist. Yet, it is also one of overcoming odds, forging one’s way through an unfair and unjust world, and making something out of nothing. Or, out of wilderness.
New South Wales. Norfolk Island. A vast wilderness. Ships laden with convicts, convicts rendered dispensable. And despite the immense odds, Richard Morgan not only survived, but thrived. It is an amazing story in itself, but given McCullough’s pen, it became a great novel. Characters come to life and you find yourself amongst the many trees felled, the soldiers, sailors and convicts, their wives and lives, the crash and heave of an angry sea, chaos and crime. Yet, somehow order is established, freedom afforded. And, with the grace of courage, hope is born.
Settled next to other McCullough favorites, Morgan’s Run is destined for a permanent place upon my bookshelves. I look forward to a second reading in the years to come.
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