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The Thorn Birds

Colleen McCullough

Start date: April 1, 2020

Finish date: June 30, 2020

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: 2nd Quarter 2020 Long Read
[close] 2nd Quarter 2020 Long Read

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New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

May 13, 2020 Franky rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, historical-fiction, 2020-reading-challenge, slappable-characters, classics, australia

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ** Minor spoilers ahead**
This is a confusing book to review. I might just have to chalk this one up to a guilty pleasure kind of read, as it works on par the level of a soap opera with all the melodrama stirred up, emotions, tensions and familial tragedies that occur.

This seems like a book that doesn’t know what it wants to focus on. Portions of this book I felt more invested in than others. I liked how the book examines Ralph’s conflicted nature between love and his role with being a priest an ** Minor spoilers ahead**
This is a confusing book to review. I might just have to chalk this one up to a guilty pleasure kind of read, as it works on par the level of a soap opera with all the melodrama stirred up, emotions, tensions and familial tragedies that occur.

This seems like a book that doesn’t know what it wants to focus on. Portions of this book I felt more invested in than others. I liked how the book examines Ralph’s conflicted nature between love and his role with being a priest and his experiences with the Cleary family, but then much of this book ventures off into areas that I felt so indifferent too, especially in the final parts (Meggie’s spite, Luke, Justine, etc.) I also liked meeting the member of the Cleary family in the opening two parts and getting a little of the family history and their way of life.

What I do like about this novel is the Australian backdrop and descriptions of these settings McCullough takes the time to make sure to give the time and place much attention to detail and I think in a larger sense this gives the background of the novel a more realistic and rich feel. I also enjoyed McCullough’s ability to construct this with the feel of the family saga over generations.

That being said, I mostly enjoyed about the first three hundred or so pages, but said enjoyment began to wane as characters began to grate on my nerves and some of the ridiculousness of the plot infiltrated to the point of no return. I think everything after this point sort of took a big nosedive.

Also, some of the characters started to annoy the heck out of me. The second half of the book seems like it just focuses on Meggie and her bitter, sad existence (cry me a river) and her shaking her fists at the world and God as well as focus on her narcissistic, selfish, annoying daughter, Justine. It completely shifts from one of the main crux of the conflict it sets up and instead heads off into focus on menial, minor characters or subplots that aren’t as interesting.

Additionally, something irked me about how much focus there was on a character’s appearance. Is it really necessary to give a rundown of every thought via interior monologue going through a character’s head about another character’s physical attributes? There was too much unnecessary description about a character’s physique that it became belabored.

The latter portions of the book, as described prior, move away from one of the central conflicts and into other areas, and this is where the book really loses steam. I had to put down the book several times because my interested lessened with each page. Not only that, but with each passing page Meggie becomes less sympathetic and her story more a chore to the point where the reader is like “Okay, get on with it.”

It get the epic feel of The Thorn Birds as a family saga and the lovely descriptions of Australia, but there are just too many things going on for little payoff: story lines or characters who do not engage interest for the long haul or are not fully explored enough to engage the reader, or interesting plots or characters that are left by the wayside altogether. ...more

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May 13, 2020 Roshio rated it it was ok

Shelves: couldn-t-finish, library

Maybe its lockdown but I've recently been tapping out of books early, i just have no desire to invest time and emotions only to have some tragic soliloquy at the end where the heroine sits alone crying 'i looooooved you'. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2014 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nook-simple-touch, bedtime, redheads, nook-mobile-app, purchased-with-money, 70s, 2015, read-harder-challenge-2015, family-saga

Completes the Guilty Pleasure task of the Read Harder book challenge.

This started out a spellbinding five stars for me and then fizzled halfway through.

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