The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Literature

This is a generational story of the Cleary family. With Irish roots, they settled in New Zealand and got in to sheep shearing. The family was large with many boys and one girl, Meggie, who just barely made ends meet. The eldest Cleary sister sends out a request for the rest of the family to join her on her huge farm in Australia. The family moves out there and learns life in the Australian outback. There are many ups and downs. Losses and births. The story focuses around Meggie as she grows up. As a girl, she looks up to the priest responsible for the local area. As Meggie grows up, she thinks there is an opportunity for her to pull the priest away from God but it's not meant to be. Love and heartbreak, this book has everything.

Being an older book, I find this book is very gentle and graceful. It's a pretty long one, and there were some things that probably didn't need to be in it, but the story developed the characters very well. Each character makes horrible decisions, but also good decisions. It's a pretty good representation of normal life.

Despite the gentle nature in which the story is tell, it's still pretty depressing overall. There's too much heartbreak for this poor Cleary family, it just doesn't seem fair to them.

This is true classical literature and I'm going to make sure I share my copy with others.

First Line: "On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

The Riders by Tim Winton

Fiction

Scully moves to Ireland ahead of his expecting wife and child, as they purchased a cottage in Ireland on whim. Scully needs to fix the house up, Jennifer his wife needs to sell their home in Australia. The Irish quickly notice a new person in the area, despite the cottage being rather remote, and Scully makes friends with Pete-the-Post who delivers his mail but also helps him with odd jobs. Pete delivers a telegram informing Scully that Jennifer has sold the house and she's coming with Billie on Sunday.

Sunday arrives and Scully travels to the airport to pick up his family but only Billie arrives. She refuses to talk about what's happened so they wait, expecting Jennifer on another plane but she never comes. Scully is determined to figure out what happened and travels across Europe with his daughter to find Jennifer.

Through Greece, Paris, and Amsterdam, we learn about Scully and Jennifer's background. Jennifer had a passion for art but no talent to back it up. Scully worked odd jobs with illegals which made Jennifer's friends look down on him.

I had a love/hate relationship with Scully. At first he seemed rather sensible and like a good dad but then he descended in to something he didn't seem to be. Chasing around Europe with a child, how is that good for your child? Eventually, Billie has to save her father from himself when he should be watching out for her. So many weird things happen to Billie, they all can be tied back to Scully's inability to parent her correctly.

I think this book can best be described as beautiful writing with no plot to back it up. There were times when I was confused about what was going on because the author was so vague in his descriptions as he went for literary beauty over comprehension. The ending left me miffed. There was a lot of build up for a big fizzle out.

First Line: "With the north wind hard at his back, Scully stood in the doorway and sniffed."

Rating:
(3/5)

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Fiction

Everyone in the northern hemisphere is believed to be dead, following WWIII and the thousands of nuclear bombs dropped on the USA, China, Russia, and many other countries. The radioactive cloud is slowly making its way south, killing those in its path. An American Navy Captain is docking his submarine in Melbourne, Australia, one of the most southern major cities in the world. Captain Towers and his men were not able to return home after their last excursion and they believe that their families are now all dead. The Australians ask them to take one more trip up to Seattle where they are getting radio signals from. Australian Peter Holmes goes with the team and watches them pull close to the shore and call out for survivors, never seeing anyone.

Those in Melbourne must come to grips with their impending death. It is only a few months until the radioactive cloud is expected. Some do every day lasts like planting a garden, some take up car racing, some try to fall in love.

I picked up this book because I very much enjoyed Shute's A Town Like Alice. This one has the same gentle and fluid writing style though it's quite a different subject matter. The denial by characters and then their slow or fast acceptance was rather interesting. It makes you wonder how you would come to grips that your time on earth is ending soon. It also makes you question how you would spend your remaining time. It was surprising that so many people were working up to almost the end. Why bother? Wouldn't you want to make the most of your time left?

This book was utterly depressing and at times I felt let down because just when you think something is going to happen, nothing really does and it's steady as she goes for the entire novel.

First Line: "Lieutenant-Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy woke soon after dawn."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

A Town like Alice by Nevil Shute

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Literature

When Noel Strachan becomes the executor of a client's will, he has a big of digging to do to determine who in the family has survived the war and who will be the beneficiary of his client's estate. He eventually finds his client's niece, Jean Paget. Miss Paget was a prisoner of war while she was in Malaya during the WWII, but she was not a typical prisoner. Her and a group of women were set wandering from town to town until the Japanese could figure out what to do with them. During this wandering Jean met Joe, an Australian, who was required to fix the transport for the Japanese. However when Joe was caught stealing, he was crucified and assumed dead.

When Jane learns of her inheritance, she tells Noel (and consequently the reader) her story. She sets out to travel back to this small town where she had settled down to repay them for their kindness. However she learns about other people she met during her time in the country, which changes her journey plans.

It becomes evident very quickly that this book was written in the 40s/50s. It has a relaxed nature to it and all of the characters are very polite and proper. Even with the slow pace, it captures you from the very start. While I can't say I loved any of the characters, I certainly cared enough to learn about what was going to happen to them. I did enjoy Jean though, she is a very business-oriented character, which I imagine would be hard to find a women of such outward business orientation in those days.

There was one part of the book though that I felt didn't fit. It seemed that the part of Mr. Curtis from the neighbouring station getting lost was just put in the book to extend it by an extra couple of pages. Looking back, I can't really see what purpose it served.

Other than that, a quaint book! I enjoyed it and I've been told that On the Beach is another Nevil Shute book that would make a good read.

First Line: "James Macfadden died in March 1905 when he was forty-seven years old; he was riding in the Driffield Point-to-Point."

Rating:

(4/5)