The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

            Our book club’s theme for November was generational novels.  I wasn’t taken by any of the books of that theme that were set out in the library, so I went looking through lists of generational novels online.  In the list I came upon The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.  I thought I had read the Australian epic many decades ago, but could not remember anything about the plot, just recalled some mental images of the immense desert-like landscape and the bleakness of a town in the Australian Outback, so I decided I would read it again.  Upon doing so, I began to realize that I had never read the famous novel in the first place.  The images I had must have been from some other Australian novel.

    Surprisingly, the story of the Cleary family, whose lives the novel follows, starts out not in Australia, but New Zealand.  The family of Paddy and Fiona with their five sons, and Meggie their four year old daughter, struggle to get by, on their small farm.  Meanwhile, Mary Carson, Paddy’s miserly 64 year old estranged sister, who they have practically no contact with, is very wealthy and owns a 250,000 acre ranch in Australia’s Outback.  With her health starting to deteriorate, she writes to Paddy and offers him a job to run her estate inviting him and his family to come and live on at Drogheda, her enormous ranch.  

    Elderly Mary Carson has a crush on the 28 year old beautifully handsome priest Father Ralph, who frequently visits her estate. While nothing physical ever happens between them, Father Ralph is well aware of his physical attractiveness, and recognizes how the worth of Mary’s land might benefit his rise with the Church.  When the Cleary family finally arrive at Drogheda, the the dynamics change.   Mary begins to notice how attracted Father Ralph is toward the strikingly beautiful, now 6 year old Meggie.  He dotes on her.  This makes old Mary very jealous, and in her will, she creates a situation that will test Father Ralph’s dedication to the Church.   At her death, he is left with the decision to have Drogheda and Mary’s $13 million in investments, go to Paddy’s family as it morally should, or have it go to the Church, elevating Father Ralph’s future status in the Church.

    Father Ralph chooses the Church and eventually ends up in the Church hierarchy of power in Rome, but the Cleary family is permitted to live on, and run Drogheda, and they are happy with that.  Before Father Ralph leaves for Rome, he and Meggie recognize the intense love they have for each other, but realize that because of Ralph’s position in the Church, he can not marry her. Father Ralph departs for Rome and the Church, but he can never get his love for her out of his mind.  Meggie, distraught at loosing Father Ralph, decides to marry Luke, a handsome ranch employee that sort of resembles Father Ralph.  Her marriage to Luke, is a horrendous mistake.  Luke is just after her money, and Meggie’s life becomes a hell, isolated from her family.

    The Thorn Birds follow the Cleary family through three generations, so there is a lot of drama yet to come in the novel.  I found the entire storyline quite engaging.

    The novel is well written and structured, and creates real empathy for the members of the Cleary family, as they struggle against the brutal environment of the Australian Outback and their own personal situations.  The writing is very good at creating both positive and very negative feelings in the reader toward the different characters.  The distressing lows are very low and as a results the novel’s highs are very high.  I was completely taken by surprise by some of the totally unexpected events that happen to the characters.  

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Thorn Birds, and know many of the images I got from the novel will stick with me.

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