The book starts with the legend of the thornbird - a bird who searches all his life for a thorn bush and once he finds it, impales himself on the thorn and while doing so sings the most beautiful song, even better that that of a lark or a nightingale and the song is so beautiful that even God smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain. This single sentence seems to sum up the common element binding the entire book.

’The Thornbirds’ is the story of the Cleary family, and their journey from their unpretentious roots in New Zealand where they worked as sheep shearers, to the huge Australian sheep farm Drogheda, owned by Paddy Cleary’s autocratic sister. The family being Irish, the land is in their blood and from the time that they arrive on Drogheda the land plays a unmistakeable part in their fortunes and destinies. The story spans 3 generations from Paddy Cleary and his wife Fiona, their sons and only daughter Meggie and the Catholic priest Ralph De Bricassart, to Meggie’s children - the exotic actress Justine and priest Dane. The story while concerned with almost all the Cleary family mainly dwells on Meggie and her relationships with her parents, brothers, Father Ralph and children.     

The author Colleen McCullough has a wonderful descriptive style of writing. From the the dry dust, heat and flies of the Australian Outback, the relentless forces of nature like storms, drought, wildfires, to the power-hungry corridors of the Vatican all are brought to life in the pages of this book. The element of pain and love is dealt with finely. We have Fiona who has suffered disappointments in love, has lost the one child she loves over all the others and who realises too late, after Paddy’s death that she loves him dearly. Meggie is similarly dazzled by and marries Luke O’Neill only to find in bitter realisation that the man she truly wants, Father Ralph De Bricassart is beyond her reach and has chosen God over her. Pain and love intermingle with Meggie’s relationships with her children Justine and Dane.

While the author’s style of writing is very interesting, I found fault with the characters that she has developed. Aside from Frank, Meggie, Ralph, Justine and Dane, the only 3-dimensional characters around, the rest of the characters didnt interest me enough to want to read about them. For example, Meggie’s brothers Jims and Patsy go off to fight in the 2nd World War but their narrative had me turning pages in impatience since the characters didnt interest me in the least. Some of the parts of the story which didnt deal with any of the major characters really dragged and I found I couldnt care less about Father (Cardinal) Ralph and his shenanigans at the Vatican. The one major thing that irritates me in this story is the relationship between Meggie and Father Ralph. When I was younger and read the book, I thought that the reason that it bothered me was because of him being a Catholic priest who had taken the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and he consistently breaks those vows. But, now I’ve come to realise that it bothered me more because when Father Ralph meets Meggie for the first time she is 10 and he is 28. They form a relationship from that time itself, but it’s more of Meggie looking up to him and loving him like a father-figure. But, they progress beyond that relationship to being in love with each other!! The weaknesses in the priest’s character and the pain that he causes Meggie by refusing to give her up is something that I cannot look beyond.   

So, the book gets 3 stars and a recommendation since it is does have some very good writing. It is well-known world wide as an epic, romantic novel, I just beg to differ ... a little :) For a much more poetic and completely different viewpoint do check out matwalaboy (Mayank’s) wonderful review here.

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