Date Finished: 04/07/2012
My Rating: 4/5
The Thorn Birds is an exquisitely written book. It says somewhere on the cover of my copy that it is Australia's Gone With The Wind, and I couldn't agree more. Strangely, the thing that struck me most was other people's reaction to it. This book, more than any other that I've read so far from this list, has stopped people in their tracks to tell me how much they had enjoyed reading it, accompanied with 'isn't it just lovely?' type statements. And they were all right, it is just lovely.
I found myself almost immediately drawn in to the central family, the Clearies, from the very first chapter, if not the very first page. From a hard life struggling to make ends meet in New Zealand, the whole family are transported to the Drogheda estate in Australia, a homestead belonging to Meggie Cleary's aunt. The story follows different members of the Cleary clan, although I think that Meggie is really the main character. The descriptions of the landscape are stunning and the tale of struggle, heartache and passion is one for any generation.
So, who should read this book? Anyone who enjoys a good romantic classic. I'm not talking Mills & Boon romance here, this is definitely not a trashy holiday romance book.
Next book: A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
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