The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

The Thorn BirdsThe Thorn Birds
by Colleen McCullough
Rating: ★★★★½
Publication Date: January 1, 1977
Genre: classic, fiction, historical fiction
Pages: 692
ReRead?: No
Project: a century of women

The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early part of the 20th century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless older sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.

The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph's course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie's except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones - but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.

Wonderful characters people this book; strong and gentle, Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her, violent, tormented Frank, and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie's children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself; stark, relentless in its demands, brilliant in its flowering, prey to gigantic cycles of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.


I’ve decided to enter all of the books read in 2021 into my database, and have realized that I can probably make some significant progress in my Century of Books project if I backtrack and include the ones that fit. I haven’t decided yet if I will go back further than 2021. Adding books & reading logs isn’t a ton of work on an individual basis, but when I’m adding 175 to 200 additional books, it adds up. I’m really intrigued by the analytics that I can run using the book database, though, which is why I decided to see how much work it was to bring 2021 up to date.

Anyway, that’s all a long explanation about why I’ll be posting about some books that I read, in some cases, more than a year ago.

I don’t think that I ever read this one around the time that it was published, although I know that my mom owned it, and I distinctly remember a lot of my friends being deeply enamored of Father Ralph, mooning about over him when we were around 13 or 14 years old. I was 11 when it was published. There was also a very dramatic and moody television mini-series that was aired in 1983 that re-animated the mooning.

I picked this book up because I was really wanted to read a 1970’s sweeping epic – something like The Far Pavilions, but that wasn’t necessarily The Far Pavilions. I devoured this book – reading all 692 pages in less than 24 hours. It is a whacking good story.

I admit that I do not like the romance between Father Ralph and Meggie. I found it to be extremely unappealing, especially since he seems to glom onto her when she is about 10 years old. In these post-Catholic-Priest-molestation-years, his obsession with young Meggie is . . . off-putting. Father Ralph stole Meggie’s life, so to speak, and just considered it his due because of his awesome manly manliness. Not my jam, at all.

But forget about the forbidden romance – the long family saga and Meggie’s life story, that was great. The relationship between Paddy and Fiona, Meggie and Fiona, was so interesting – I found myself incredibly frustrated by Fiona. I also really loved the setting of the Outback sheep station. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. This was an immersive, engrossing and very fast read.

11 comments

  1. I read this one in my late teens/early twenties and loved it, although even at the time I wasn’t particularly taken with the Maggie/Father Ralph thing. As you pointed out, the book works well without it, as the sweep of the story literally carries you away; of course, there’s also that wonderfully (to me) exotic setting as well. I’m not sure how I’d react to the novel now (I seem to recall reading subsequent Colleen McCullough novels with decreasing levels of satisfaction) but — this one was wonderful at the time!
    I notice from your sidebar that you’re reading All Passion Spent. Somewhat to my surprise (I haven’t yet made it through The Edwardians, despite an attempt or two) I really enjoyed this. As for Testament of Youth — it had a shattering effect on me when I read it years ao (admittedly I was really young); I literally couldn’t put it down. I’ll be interested to read your reaction to The Sea — I’ve been too intimidated to try it!

    1. Testament of Youth is shattering – that’s a good word to describe it. I’m at about 40%, and it’s hard to stop reading.

      I haven’t actually started The Sea, The Sea yet, and I’ve read about 1/3 of All Passion Spent. I’m really liking it.

      1. Testament was one of those books that affected me in a profoundly emotional way, which doesn’t happen often. I generally like what I read (I’m fairly picky about my choices) but there’s usually a distance between me and the events. Not so with Vera Brittain. Somehow she managed to capture all the waste and tragedy of an entire generation in that book. I read it in my late 20s, when I was in a fairly tense & demanding academic program and remember telling my friends to take some really good notes I could borrow, as they weren’t going to see me for a few days! Reading that book was worth every minute (and I don’t generally like works dealing with WWI). That being said, I also loved Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy, especially the first one.

    2. Please don’t be intimidated by Murdoch, she was very keen that anyone should read her books and if they got something out of them, from a story to deep philosophy, she’d be delighted. The Sea, The Sea is very readable and my husband, not a Murdoch scholar, very much enjoyed it. I studied book groups reading The Bell for some research and pretty well all of them found it less intimidating than they’d expected … I’ll stop going on and hijacking Christine’s post about a different book now!

      1. Thanks for the encouragement, Liz! I have read The Bell, many years ago, but that’s pretty much it. I do sort of have a Murdoch lined up (Under the Net) although I may not get to it this year.

      2. Hijack away – I’m hoping to actually start The Sea, The Sea over the weekend. I read more of All Passion Spent last night, and it’s pretty wonderful. I’m enjoying my month with Vita!

  2. I loved The Thorn Birds in my youth but boy howdy some of it has NOT aged well. I reread it a couple of years ago and the Ralph/Maggie parts were cringey. I do love an epic multi-generational saga, and learning about life in Australia.

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