The Thorn Birds - Synopsis

The Thorn Birds begins in 1915 and spans three generations of the Cleary family, living, for the most part, in the Australian outback. It was not until I began reading this book that I realized that it’s impossibly long and detailed, and that an entire miniseries based on it couldn’t fit all of the various subplots and details from the book. Regrettably,
The main character, if one can be clearly defined, is Meggie. She is six when the book begins, and some background is given about her father, Paddy, and her mother, Fiona. Fiona seems cold and distant, but a devoted mother and housewife, going to bed exhausted every night but never complaining. In fact, she rarely talks at all. She favors her eldest son Frank out of all of her children; he is in his late teens in the beginning of the book. It is hinted that Frank isn’t entirely “legitimate,” and it isn’t until much later that it is formally revealed that he wasn’t fathered by Paddy. The circumstances around Fiona and Pad...