The Thorn Birds

I picked up The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough secondhand at Shakespeare & Company in Paris when my cousin was visiting.

Forget the Louvre! An English book store is what every tourist wants to see. Natch!

Picking it out of the used book bin, I had a vague memory of a commercial of a mini-series with Richard Chamberlain in it so I decided to try it out. For some reason, I thought it was one of those civil war epics. I had no idea that it was set in Australia of all things! Oops.

After deciding to dig in however, the first page should have been a warning to me though on how this story would go. I knew that it was considered a "Sweeping Saga" but I had no idea what I was getting myself into:

"There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to outcarol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend."

Yes.

Though the book is divided into parts spanning years and each of those parts relates to a different character, the main character of this story is Meggie. It is Meggie's story, Meggie's life. We meet her when she is 4 years old and we leave her near the end of her life. We follow her as she falls in love with that which is forbidden, as she tries to reconcile herself to a different way of life, and her homecoming. The raising of her children, the lives of the children Meggie has given to the world and the mysteries that women hold dear to their hearts.

I can't help but feel that the writing was somewhat stunted, that the tragedy itself was canned and expected. The ultimate tragedy (in the series of) could be seen coming a million miles away and unfortunately, lacked the pathos that I would have expected. Especially when learning through wikipedia that it was based on a tragic accident that occurred in the author's own family.

Perhaps it's a failing on my part because it is not the type of book that I will actively seek out. In a way, it was a rather matronly read and this book seemed to fall into my lap.

However, when I read, I want to be entertained, not driven to weep.

And unfortunately, this book wanted me to weep, but it wasn't able to drive me to it.

Something was missing.