Re-reading
Colleen McCullough’s novel, The Thorn
Birds, after a gap of about 25 years was as much a delightful experience as
the first reading. The novel that runs
into almost 600 pages tells the story of three generations of the Cleary family. Paddy and his wife Fee lived in New Zealand
along with their 6 children (and more would be born eventually) and managed to
eke out a living until invited by Paddy’s sister to Australia. Paddy was to inherit the fabulous wealth (13
million pounds) of his aging sister after her death.
Mary
Carson, however, changes her will when she sees the relationship that unfolds
between her young parish priest, Fr Ralph, and the little Cleary girl,
Meggie. Meggie is a charming young girl. Mary knows that she will grow up to be one of
the prettiest women in the parish.
Jealousy, more than malice, motivates Mary to write a new will according
to which her entire property will go the Catholic Church and Fr Ralph will be
its manager. Mary has now set on fire
the spark of ambition that lay smouldering in Ralph. Bringing so much wealth to the Church means
Ralph will gradually be elevated to higher positions in the Church. Soon he will be a bishop and later a
cardinal. But he will lose the beautiful
Meggie who adores him. What Mary could
not get, Meggie will not either.
Mary
dies and Paddy does not challenge his sister’s will in the court. He is happy with the huge sums given annually
to all members of his family. It is
Meggie’s heart that breaks. She is deeply
in love with Ralph. Later she marries
Luke who resembles Ralph physically.
Luke has none of Ralph’s refinements.
Yet the two men are very similar, according to Meggie. “You’re all the same,” she says, “great big
hairy moths bashing yourselves to pieces after a silly flame behind a glass so
clear your eyes don’t see it. And if you
manage to blunder your way inside the glass to fly into the flame, you fall
down burned and dead. While all the time
out there in the cool night there’s food, and love, and baby moths to
get.”
Eventually Ralph will fly into the flame that Meggie
is. When he will later try to
rationalise the act intellectually, his mentor, Cardinal Vittorio, will ask him
why he cannot simply accept that he was a human being with certain
weaknesses.
The novel is about the usual human passions,
weaknesses as well as strengths. The
author seems to think that love is an essentially feminine virtue while the quest
for power and/or wealth is more a man’s affair.
There is also an apparent and frequent conflict between the ideal and
the real in the novel. The ideal cannot survive for long; compromises become
inevitable; flippancy and rebelliousness will slowly mature into practical
approaches... But the novel is not a literary exploration of any such
theme. It tells a good story that grips
our hearts from the beginning to the end.
Sounds quite interesting. Thanks for sharing. I will definitely try to get my hands on it if possible.
ReplyDeleteThe book is still available, Pankti. Like at flipkart.com And it's worth the buy, I assure you.
Deletethanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteNever read this book even though I have seen it a couple of times. Guess i should ... Thank you for reviewing this
ReplyDeleteWish you good reading.
DeleteSeems to be a nice classic but I didn't read this book.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't call it a classic. It stays above pulp fiction but fails to reach the level of literature.
DeleteOld is Gold!
ReplyDeleteRead it about 18 years ago, when I was still in school. Brought back memories. Wrote a review on it for a school assignment and got 9.5 out of 10! :P
ReplyDeleteThe book was my first glimpse into the complexity of relationships. Would love to read it again.
A nice share indeed.... Thanks for the post......
ReplyDeleteYou may also find Kenfolios interesting......
That was one of the interesting and racy books I had read.I wonder whether it will have the same effect on me , if I get to read it now.
ReplyDeleteNice review. It's fine to listen to classic music when reading.
ReplyDelete"Vittorio knew, but it was the woman in him stilled his tongue" Any ideas out there as to what is being said here? Is the woman Mary Carson? It appears to me to be a mistake with grammar, but someone out there might enlighten me.
ReplyDelete