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Fergus, Quondam Happy Face's Reviews > The Thorn Birds
The Thorn Birds
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It’s a rough job reading a novel that tears your heart apart, but it’s rougher still to see it on GR forty years later... and then give it FIVE STARS!
WHY in the name of Sam Hill would I do that?
Books can drive you into irrational behaviour. But you know what’s WORSE?
This book turned me into a Catholic convert.
No joke.
I MUST be crazy, right?
Actually, no...
This book proved to me that Christianity is a religion, above all, of TRYING. Of ‘d*mning the torpedoes’ and sailing ‘full speed ahead.’ Of getting up off the dirty floor, dusting yourself off, and getting back into the fray.
For in 1980 I was in the very THICK of the Soup.
My meds were an obnoxious fallback for my stress and I HATED my job. At times that autumn - the only time it ever happened to me - I felt almost suicidal.
I was at the proverbial end of my rope...
Then I read this calamitous set of hopeless misadventures set in the Australian outback. It gripped me till the end.
You know, I had everything: a wonderful fiancé, good friends, and I had just secured a promotion. And this job was it.
So what was the problem?
Well, I worked in an Automated Supply Cell. This job necessitated following computer orders partly written in machine language (remember the pre-desktop-computer days? ) to fill orders.
That’s right - the Stone Age, I think we call it now.
Bill Gates, BTW a wonderful GR reviewer, was, way back then, a kid like me. But he woulda known better.
Help! I needed H-E-L-P!!!
So, there I was, up crap creek without a paddle, and on my coffee breaks I poured my soul into The Thorn Birds. I guess misery really DOES love company.
But The Thorn Birds, above all, is a Fantastically HUMAN book, though it can singe your soul. And that’s why it clicked for me.
It showed me REAL LIFE AS IT IS.
Straight - no chaser, as Thelonius Monk once said.
The Thorn Birds LIVES.
It BREATHES.
It’s FLESH & BLOOD writing.
The same as my newly-restored Faith - with all of its faults and blemishes and, yes! ALONG with all the Chorus of Loud Protests it elicits from this ugly but fading postmodern fracas we call the world...
The VERY SAME FAITH.
Believe it, or NOT.
WHY in the name of Sam Hill would I do that?
Books can drive you into irrational behaviour. But you know what’s WORSE?
This book turned me into a Catholic convert.
No joke.
I MUST be crazy, right?
Actually, no...
This book proved to me that Christianity is a religion, above all, of TRYING. Of ‘d*mning the torpedoes’ and sailing ‘full speed ahead.’ Of getting up off the dirty floor, dusting yourself off, and getting back into the fray.
For in 1980 I was in the very THICK of the Soup.
My meds were an obnoxious fallback for my stress and I HATED my job. At times that autumn - the only time it ever happened to me - I felt almost suicidal.
I was at the proverbial end of my rope...
Then I read this calamitous set of hopeless misadventures set in the Australian outback. It gripped me till the end.
You know, I had everything: a wonderful fiancé, good friends, and I had just secured a promotion. And this job was it.
So what was the problem?
Well, I worked in an Automated Supply Cell. This job necessitated following computer orders partly written in machine language (remember the pre-desktop-computer days? ) to fill orders.
That’s right - the Stone Age, I think we call it now.
Bill Gates, BTW a wonderful GR reviewer, was, way back then, a kid like me. But he woulda known better.
Help! I needed H-E-L-P!!!
So, there I was, up crap creek without a paddle, and on my coffee breaks I poured my soul into The Thorn Birds. I guess misery really DOES love company.
But The Thorn Birds, above all, is a Fantastically HUMAN book, though it can singe your soul. And that’s why it clicked for me.
It showed me REAL LIFE AS IT IS.
Straight - no chaser, as Thelonius Monk once said.
The Thorn Birds LIVES.
It BREATHES.
It’s FLESH & BLOOD writing.
The same as my newly-restored Faith - with all of its faults and blemishes and, yes! ALONG with all the Chorus of Loud Protests it elicits from this ugly but fading postmodern fracas we call the world...
The VERY SAME FAITH.
Believe it, or NOT.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
October 2, 2019
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-50 of 78 (78 new)
message 1:
by
Tanya
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rated it 5 stars
Oct 02, 2019 11:13AM
One of my all time favorites!
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It swept me up into such a cauldron of sheer doubt 35 years ago! So much so that I doubted the Faith I had soon before renewed. But Zen Buddhism assured me that if one wants unshakeable faith, it has to be shaken to the core. That proved to be correct!
I have this!! Just came in the mail. Your 5 stars makes me wat to read it tonight! (It will take a bit seeing that it's so thick)
Well, Karina, it’ll grab you from the first few pages. Whatta book! It just DOESN’T LET GO...
While I read this quite some time ago, I remember it well and I loved it! Glad it was 5 stars for you Fergus!
It sure was, Angela - and now you know WHY, though it took me forty years in a medicated haze to find out!
I loved this book back in the day but it's one I wouldn't read again. There are one or two like that for me. Gosh it was a fantastic read!!
I was the same - in fact, just a while ago, I professed to myself that I DESPISED it. But old age has bruised me since then - like life did to these two starcrossed lovebirds - and I see I was simply disowning my love for this book!
Maybe I will read it again one day Fergus. I'm not quite old aged yet but life has definitely bruised me too.
A great bppk! She wrote other fine books, although not as well known.
You know, Barbara, I did order some of the other lesser-known novels for a friend 10 or 15 years ago, but I wonder if they were as memorable as this one?
I don't know if I could bear reading this again. I think the emotional turmoil I was going through as a lost young woman myself would all boil over. You are braver than me, Fergus.
Not me, dear friend. Simply its indelible imprint on my soul back in 1980
...is all I can take, right now!
This was a fave of mine also the year I read it, I think I still have it somewhere. I have read a couple of her earlier works: Tim, and An Indecent Obsession; neither one came even close to the fantastic Thorn Birds.
It sweeps you up and away in its sheer power, doesn’t it? An amazing book.
I loved The Thornbirds, both the book and movie, though they have somewhat different endings. I read it decades ago and still remember it. How many books can we say that about?
You’re RIGHT, Sharon - not very many! I don’t normally love turbulent books, but this one was ONE OUTSTANDING EXCEPTION!
on oldie but a goodie
Yeah, Mick, I know I’m showing my age, but you gotta admit back in those days books had a REAL HEART!
Wonderful review, Fergus! One of my favorite books. The writing and storytelling just sweep you to another place and time. Heartbreaking and beautiful!! 🕊🌹
Oh, agreed, Luv! Like the scroll in the Book of Revelation, this book is bitter to the taste but sweet to the stomach!
I love this review. I really need to read this book; my mom read it when she was pregnant with me and it resulted in her naming me Meggie, and not Jamie, as my dad had wanted. It always looked like a soap-opera kind of novel, which I was allergic to for a long time but now . . . who has the energy to nurture that kind of prejudice? A good book is a good book. I'll pull this one off the shelf today. Thanks, Fergus. :)
Meghan... your comment has touched me so very deeply. I hope this wonderful book will touch you as much!
God certainly does work in mysterious ways. I am glad He was able to use this book to help you!
Just reread your review of this again Fergus. Wonderful!! I LOVED this back in the day. I cried, I laughed and I loved.
Thanks so much, Teresa!😊
Stacy, I was being shown in that faraway wintertime of my soul that there can be Real Compassionate Meaning in Suffering!
I can see that, though that was not what my first take-away would have been. I guess that was just what you needed at the time to help you get through. : ) Isn't funny how everyone can read the same book and it will impact everyone differently? I liked the book as well-- perhaps it is time for me to revisit it?
I hope you do, Stacy - many of the really good things of life Improve with Age!
Truer words have never been spoken! : )
Good review Fergus. I read this book a long time ago, it is a great book. I probably need to read it again, I need a good read right now.
It IS good. And I read it at a timely moment in my life, after my first therapeutic transcranial brain stimulation for depression! My mind was expanding into freedom.
I love this book, too. I also read it years ago. My middle daughter moved to Australia, Canberra, with her fiancé and I was devastated any time I thought about it. I read it again a couple months ago and was completely absorbed by the character, and all they each represent.
A good book sticks in our memories for a long, long time. Yes, and Cynthia, a life founded in solid values is SO worth living!
I do love this author, particularly her work on Ancient Rome. I must read this one day - terrific review again Fergus!
A book that effected me greatly as a teen. I recently went and bought me a copy to reread. Definitely one of those books that can change you.
Thanks so much, Mark - must be so great when all the wild terrain she describes is practically in your own back yard! I hope you have a wonderful, restful Holiday with Hope and Healing in 2022...:-)
Yes, Tanya - it changed me as well! And it made me see that without life’s shadows, sunlight loses its sparkle. The novel’s honesty forced me to face the shadow side of my self so I could meet life on its own terms - a tall order for me then. But 40 years later, I’m glad I did!
Great review! I LOVED this book AND the TV series!
Pam, I did as well. It made me see that the real prize is won when we have successfully wrestled our apathy to the ground and conquered it!
I read it in one go more than 20 years ago. It was in 2 volumes, I still remember. I started reading in the TV room and then it was 5 o'clock when I finished in tears. Love it.
Ah, that's beautiful. What an overpowering effect it had on our hearts!
I knew you were going to say that (when your name popped up at me)! This is one heckuva book, isn't it? Back then I loved long sagas - now I'd forget all the characters' names! Not Seniors territory.
Lol!! Senior in High School you say?
No - senior, as in me now! My darned memory's a sieve.
From your reviews, your memory is comparable to the world wide internet. You tell the most amazing short stories relating to your life through these books. I am in awe of you. Don’t ever change, Fergus
