Review: The Thorn Birds

Title: The Thorn Birds
Author: Colleen McCullough
Pages: 673
Rating: 5/5

One of the most beloved novels of all time, Colleen McCullough's magnificent saga of dreams, struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian outback has enthralled readers the world over. The Thorn Birds is a chronicle of three generations of Clearys—an indomitable clan of ranchers carving lives from a beautiful, hard land while contending with the bitterness, frailty, and secrets that penetrate their family. It is a poignant love story, a powerful epic of struggle and sacrifice, a celebration of individuality and spirit. Most of all, it is the story of the Clearys' only daughter, Meggie, and the haunted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart—and the intense joining of two hearts and souls over a lifetime, a relationship that dangerously oversteps sacred boundaries of ethics and dogma (Cover Blurb).


I've let the size of this book intimidate me for much too long.  Coming in at just under 700 pages, The Thorn Birds is one of the most amazing pieces of literature I have ever read.  Chocked full of dram intrigue and scandel, it has consumed my life for the past week and a half.  I've been fighting sleep at work because I can't put this book down to go to bed at night.  The story of the Cleary family draws you in, making it difficult to think of much else.

The Thorn Birds is told in seven parts and covers a bit more than 50 years of the Cleary family's life.  Most of the story centers around Meggie, the only daughter of Fee and Paddy Cleary.  Meggie is only a young girl when the family first moves to Australia, and it then that she meets Fr Ralph de Bricassart.  Ralph is a young Catholic priest struggling to find his place in the church and among men.  The reader watches as Meggie continues to grow into a beautiful young women and her relationship with Ralph also grows.  To tell more would almost be a sin, as all readers should experience this tale themselves.

At it's time of publication, The Thorn Birds created quite a scandel within the United States, especially with Catholics.  Catholics found huge scandel in Fr. Ralph and the journey he choice to take with his life.  Also, this book was seen to be a bit racy for the times, especially around the "older" generation who first read it.  In fact, I can remember when the mini-series was first on TV, that my mother banned me from the room when it was playing.  She said it was nothing that I needed to be seeing.  However, it did not stop her from watching it...lol.  Now as an adult, I understand her misgivings, especially considering the fact that we come from a very strong Catholic family.  My Great Uncle served under the Pope in Rome for almost 30 years, and my younger brother is currently in seminary studying for the priesthood.  I talked to him about The Thorn Birds, and he still finds it to be very scandalizing to the Catholic Church. 

To me The Thorn Birds is one of those books you can sink your teeth into.  The pages take you away to a far off country, to a time when life was slower and almost seemed to have more meaning.  I often found myself lost in the pages, loosing track of time and reality.  This book is most definitely one of my top ten favorite books, if not my favorite book of all time.  I am so glad that I took the time to experience this story for all that it is worth.

Review: Those Who Save Us

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmführer of Buchenwald.

Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother-daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame (Cover Blurb).

I have always been drawn to literature and fiction that takes place or is about WW2 and the Holocaust. I just can't image what it was like for the millions of Jews who suffered under the hand of Hitler and the SS. However, despite this odd attraction, I must really be in the mood to read one of these many books. Last week, when searching the shelves for something new to read, I stumbled upon this book, lost in the back of my book shelf. I really think I bought the book based mainly on my impression of the cover, and then for what the blurb said. It sounded different to me then many of the other books I had read about this time and I was in the mood for something a bit *different.*

This novel starts out by introducing us to both Anna and Trudy at the funeral of Jack - Anna's late husband and Trudy's step father. After only a few pages, we are quickly transported back in time to a young Anna, and her father Gerhard. It is in these few pages that we are introduced to Max, a Jewish Doctor who will forever change Anna's life. The story continues to jump back and forth between past and present, but its not confusing because of the wonderful way the author and publishers have set up the text.

We learn that Trudy knows nothing of her true father, Max - all along thinking she is a product of her mother's love for an SS Officer. As the story continues, Trudy, desperate to find something out about her past, begins a historical documentary project in which she interviews Germans who survived the war and what they went through during this time period. Trudy hopes that by doing so she will learn not only something about her past, but something about her mother, who is tight lipped and refuses to talk about the past. At the same time, through flashbacks, we learn the true story of Anna and Trudy during the years of WW2.

I absolutely adored this book, and think that it will be the top novel of 2008 for me. The one thing that I personally did not enjoy about the novel was the fact that it was written in third person. This took a few minutes to get used to, but once I was the time flew with this novel. I would recommend this to anyone who loves strong, even character development. This novel pulls you into the story and you soon forget where you are. I felt so much for Anna throughout the whole thing, that at times I was close to tears with her struggles. This book is definitely a keeper for me, and I will be passing it on to my mom and friends to read also.

4.5/5