The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCollough

 You know that thing when you hear a word/phrase/book and then all of a sudden it's everywhere in your life?  Apparently it's called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon?  That was what happened with The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough for me. I had heard of this book before, but all of a sudden people were talking about it with me (one of these people assumed I'd read it!) and it was appearing on lists of great romance novels* and then I felt obligated to put it on my TBR and so the saga begins.

Paddy and Fiona Cleary move their seven children from New Zealand to Australia to help Paddy's widowed sister take care of Drogheda, a giant sheep station. We follow the antics of the Cleary family from the outback to battlefields and the big European cities.  For three generations, we watch as the Cleary family goes through the highs and lows of all large families. We see as the choices that one generation makes change the lives of the next generation. We see love, death, adultery, and a strange amount of the Vatican.  

I'm glad I read this book, but I'm struggling to articulate what I actually think of it. The story of a family in this setting was interesting. But the characters themselves were opaque to me and frequently took actions that were incomprehensible to me. Why would they do that and not that?  And there would never be follow-up because we'd have to move on to another person and another time to get through the generations. This despite its over 600 pages in length. Oh, well, there's lot of good stuff in here and if you're into soap operas or family dramas, this book will suit you. 

3/5 stars

*I'm befuddled by the placement of this on lists of great romance novels. Because it's a multi-generational story, there's no focus on one romance and there's not really a solid romance plot in the book at all.  

Lines of note:

They starved him; they immured him in a cell so small he could neither sit, nor stand nor lie; they flogged him to jellied pulp; they chained him to a rock in the sea and let him half-drown. And he laughed at them, a skinny collection of bones in filthy canvas, not a tooth in his mouth or an inch of his skin unscarred, lit from within by a fire of bitterness and defiance nothing seemed to quench. (page 27)

Sounds bad, real bad.

In all her life she could not remember seeing a better-looking man, nor one who used his beauty in quite the same way. (page 76)

This was the kind of writing that puzzled me. McCollough never elaborated on what way it was.  It reminded me a bit of Willa Cather's descriptions. 

"Perfection in anything," she said, "is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection." (page 78)

As I age, I feel this more and more. I am also a bit less precious about the number of things in which I strive for perfection.

It was just harder to do what women always did: cook, clean, wash, iron, care for babies. (page 107)

Wow. This was written in the 1970s. What a crazy way to describe the lives of half the population.

"Inside this stupid body I'm still young - I still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Old age is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful God inflicts upon us." (page 196)

This works in direct contrast with another line further on in the book.

Only too well did Meggie know what sheep were. Idiots, incapable of understanding even the rudiments of survival. What little brain the original animal had ever possessed was entirely bred out of these woolly aristocrats. (page 465)

I have no idea why this line made me laugh so hard, but it did.

"I'm getting old at last, Meggie. And things don't hurt as much any more. What a blessing old age can be!" (page 526)

This is in direct contrast to old age as a terrible punishment from earlier in the novel.  I enjoyed the juxtaposition. 

"I used to think having a daughter wasn't nearly as important as having sons, but I was wrong. I enjoy you, Meggie, in a way I can never enjoy my sons. A daughter's an equal. Sons aren't, you know. They're just defenceless dolls we set up to knock down at our leisure." (page 531)

Not flattering to daughters or sons, is it?

Her natural tendency was to deplore human failings in others and ignore them in herself; his natural tendency was to understand and forgive human failings in others, and be merciless upon them in himself. (page 587)

Interesting that McCollough had to write this out directly instead of showing the reader how this worked in practice.

Things I looked up:

...while the family piled into the old shandrydan... (page 25) - A light two-wheeled conveyance, generally rickety and horse-drawn.

...the young Roderick Armstrong was a tartar. (page 27) - A harsh, fierce, or intractable person.

...the lady surely wielded as much power and controlled as many individuals as any puissant war lord of elder days. (page 71) - Having great power or influence.

...especially since he wore a plain black soutane which gave him something of a courtly air. (page 74) - A type of cassock worn by Roman priests. 

...in its appurtenances it was not unlike the house they had left behind in New Zealand. (page 101) - Accessories or other items associated with a particular activity or style of living.

Captious in the extreme, the great winds blew to suit themselves. (page 111) - Tending to find fault or raise petty objections.

But the spruiker was very serious...(page 132) - Australian English - someone who tries to persuade people to buy something, use a service, etc. often in a dishonest or exaggerated way

...helping her pick her...way through the Gilly mud in imported guipure lace shoes...(page 135) - a delicate type of lace created of convex lace elements connected with bars or plaits, resulting in an airy ornament.  

Weil's disease (page 388) - Also known as Weil syndrome, a bacterial infection that is characterized by disfunction of the kidneys and liver. Most commonly caused by a bite from an infected animal, including rats, mice, cows, pigs, and dogs.

Tab Hunter (page 571) - An American actor who had his heyday in the 1950s (editorial: and was so so so attractive). 

Rory Calhoun (page 571) - Another American actor from the 1950s and 1960s. He was in lots of westerns.

And dux of his class into the bargain. (page 588) - Latin for leader.