The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough

The Thorn Birds was written by Collen McCullough in the late 1970's and was later adapted into a tv series. The book is nearly 700 pages detailing love, life, and tragedies of the Cleary family. Though you meet many Cleary family members and characters throughout the book, the main characters include:

- Fee Cleary: the family matriach
- Meggie Cleary: the only daughter amongst the Cleary family
- Ralph de Bricassart: Catholic priest
and later you meet
- Justine O'Neil: Meggie's oldest child and only daughter

We follow the Cleary family from their humble beginnings on a small farm in New Zealand - to inheriting the largest property in Australia - Drogheda. Though men are obviously more important to society and the Cleary's, the real story is about the women.

We watch Fee struggle with various losses in her life - the loss of her husband, Frank, and Stu. She has an iron clad personality; showing little emotion towards almost all her family members.
Then you have Meggie who falls in love with Ralph, but marries another man since Ralph won't leave the cloth. Again, another Cleary woman who has to deal with loss and struggle. She has no idea how to love her daughter or talk to her own mother.
And finally there's Justine, who like the other Cleary women keeps her emotions in check. As an actress she can hide herself behind a character - always keeping her distance from any type of emotional attachment.

There is a lot of hardship, tragedy, and death in this book. Some of the deaths surprised me and made me sad; however, I was never really too attached to any character. Though its a nice story - it definitely felt a bit dated to me. Though the ending isn't tragic, I guess I always hoped that somehow Meggie and Ralph would find a way...but alas it wasn't meant to be. But I think the true importance of the book is about love and family - and finding your own way.

So what's the significance of the title? Well there's a poignant story in the book about a thorn bird - "a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles."

Could any character be classified as a thorn bird? I think yes - Dane (Meggie's son), and maybe each of the Cleary women. In their old age they are able to rise above their own agony to find a relationship with one another at last.
Would I recommend this book? Probably not, but I'm glad I read it nonetheless.