William Morrow The Thorn Birds

I wanted to love this book, because the concept is fantastic, but it kept "missing" for me, which exasperated me somewhat. If you imagine this is the story of a girl and her love for a priest you are wrong. It's a long-winded saga, and that relationship is only a small part of the story.It's too long by a few hundred pages as there isn't enough in it. It rambles on at the end. I'm not sure why we even needed the Justine/ Dane/ Rainer stuff. It makes an untidy end.I love books with a powerful sense of place, and you certainly get that with the outback parts. I don't think the twins going to war was necessary to document in detail, as it didn't push the story on. There was too much of the Vatican too, I felt, as I get annoyed when a book so centred in place suddenly moves elsewhere. Overall the style is fine and easy to read. There are a few clunky word choices, but you always get those. I found the changes of POV from one paragraph to another were confusing: Towards the end we have a paragraph about Justine in London, and the next is from Meggie's POV in Australia.I thought it was somewhat odd that not one of the Cleary men married. I realise they would not meet many people where they live, but perhaps one of the twins could have met someone while away at war. It seems to be a sexless, rather sterile family (Meggie's generation). I did not take to any of the characters, except perhaps Dane.This sounds a negative review. It's not. I read it quickly and I give it four stars. If it was a dish (I know this is pretentious) I would say it needs seasoning. There was just something missing from what could have been am incredible, powerful story of love, God, morals etc. I would have preferred less of a saga, and more of a shorter love story, kept tighter with more tension. I do realise that styles have changed over the last 30 odd years and maybe that is it: it is simply dated.Having said all this, I reckon I will read it again, and I recommend it. Just don't expect an overwhelming tortured love story.

I first read this when I was fourteen, and loved it. Now, many years later, I decided to read it again, and was surprised by how great the writing, as well as the story was. Even though I knew what happened, I still loved the tale of Meggie and her doomed loved for Father Ralph, who as a Catholic Priest cannot or will not express his love for her. This time round, however, I enjoyed much more the wider cast of characters that populate the Australian outback, and shed genuine tears for the tragedy of Fi, Paddy, Stu and of course, Frank. Oh Frank. Hard to write this without spoiling it, but if you are going on holiday or going to bed for a week and want to lose yourself in a world full of powerfully drawn characters and go on a journey of love and tragedy and weep quite a bit, then I urge you to buy this book.

This is not an Australian 'Gone With the Wind'...what a ridiculous claim. Read Gone With the Wind and you'll agree. In fact, that is definitely what I suggest you spend your time reading.The Thorn Birds It is a completely different story and not as good. Everything just had a slightly negative undertone, which feels rather contrived. I couldn't get into it. The nuns beat the kids, the parents are racist...clichés I have not got time for. My daughter, 16, who loves reading and is much less critical than me, couldn't get into it either, and she had weeks to kill over the summer.

I had heard rave reviews of the television adaptation years ago but hadn't seen it or read the story.It is an interesting book undoubtedly and I read it all in a short space of time. I enjoyed it for the Australian background and the life in the sugar growing area and the harsh reality of life in the outback.The romance side was the only aspect of the story I knew about before I bought it which is probably why I hadn't bought it sooner. I found this aspect of the story less convincing and less important to me than it was probably meant to be. Perhaps it was easier to convey the passion and feelings on film as I didn't really get it much from the book, finding it rather flat and implausible.

The story follows Meggie from her 4th birthday until she was probably around 60. Through her relationship with her mother, Ralph, brothers, husband and children we learn about her and the rest of the people in her life. It's a very interesting family saga, heart braking most of the times. What I found most satisfactory was that you really can see the personal and emotional growth of the women through the generations.It's one of those stories that spans over many generations and makes you think about your own family and patterns of behaviours you have inherited from your parents, grandparents.I gave it 4 stars, because there were too many superfluous descriptions for my taste and the sentence structure was just awful. And I really don't find it convincing that one man can be so beautiful that EVERY man and woman regardless of their age and station in life would find him unbelievable attractive. Moreover, he has a son that is the spit image of himself and doesn't even consider the possibility that the boy (later the man, priest) might be his son.