I've read something similar before, Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is also about the life of a narcissistic prideful girl who managed to mess up at every turn. Scarlett was chasing wealth, luxury and made-up love. But "Singing in the Blackthorns" boasts its protagonist, Maggie, who didn't seek money at all, but spent her life tormented by a childhood crush that grew into an unimaginable obsession. The tragedy is that she fell in love with a cleric. And it is very symbolic that our heroine herself has the last name of Cleary.
After reading a few chapters, I became convinced that the novel is female, probably reactionary for the time. The author's position can be seen clearly:
1. All men are assholes and villains, and if they aren't, they're still assholes;
2. A woman is a darling, if that's you. Everyone else is a bitch. Except for the ones who tell you you're cute and poor;
3. Kids? Who cares about them!
4. Church is good, but the vow of celibacy is bad.
That's in a nutshell. Now let's ride the whole cavalry.
Colleen Margaretta McCullough was an Australian author known for her novels, her most well-known being The Thorn Birds and Tim.
The story begins when the main character is either 4 or 5 years old. She's full of brothers, poor parents, a hardworking father, and a thrifty mother. Actually, the book already begins with some brothers bullying her little sister, and she thinks that if she can't stand up for herself, her parents won't help her.
Her mother is making ends meet, because there is no money, and she needs something to cook, clothes to patch, too. She does not love her husband, or rather she loves him, but she does not realize it. It's horrible. Fiona Cleary is an insensitive woman who doesn't care about anyone but her firstborn. As time goes on, she develops sarcastic traits and her armor becomes thicker and thicker, behind which she hides from everything and everyone. She doesn't need anyone, and no one really needs her. The feminist McCullough is the perfect mother.
The author tries to portray the head of the family Paddy as a despot, a useless man and almost a devil, who every few months allows himself to perform marital duties, followed by children at intervals of several years. The actual key accusations against him are: "a real man would have left her alone a long time ago," too much work and not enough money, not noble descent, short stature and generally Irish. But despite all the tricks, Paddy Cleary turns out to be a normal, positive character, hardworking, strict but fair, who doesn't dote on his wife and daughter (she is the only one who has presents for birthdays). At some point, the author sees this too, after which he gives up trying to smear a decent man.
The Cleary brothers are mostly like each other, becoming shy, hardworking, and quiet as they grow up. There's not much to worry about, so parents, sister, and author alike put a cross on them, let them live and grow old, they play little role in the story and the life of sunshine Maggie anyway.
Little Maggie is both beautiful and clever. Well, what is a woman's novel if the sight of the main character of the men do not faint and do not stack themselves? And in the study of abounding, and loves to read, and ride horses, helping her brothers, as well as taking part in the education of his little brother, because his mother did not care about him. In general, everything would be fine if she had an intelligent and caring woman by her side. When Maggie's thoughts or judgments slip into "that's the way it's supposed to be," "that's the way she was raised," I can only wonder. No one brought her up, she lived practically in isolation, and had it not been for the priest she had fallen madly in love with, she would have remained ignorant.
Maggie is stubborn, impenetrable, and extremely short-sighted. This is the reason for all her troubles, and the same reason those she is attracted to will suffer. In her mind, no vows, no job, no calling, no vows are worth anything, so all her long life she will curse the love of her life for not renouncing his ministry, which is basically impossible, for not betraying his faith and career, for holding on to his vows. And as we know from other works, there is nothing like marrying the first moral freak who comes along, having a child, treating him (the child) with hatred, hypocrisy, not giving up trying to seduce the priest, and then running away, to spite everyone. Very modern and sensible, bravo, McCullough!
A novel without a prince is no novel. So we have a slender, tall and handsome Ralph, ambitious, almost never aging, and if he does, only getting prettier. Of high moral character, almost. Just as Maggie's beauty makes men flatter themselves, so Ralph makes women sigh, swoon, and cling to their bodies. For some unknown reason, this devoted Catholic husband takes the deepest interest in Maggie from the first time they meet to the last. Of course, he realizes that by becoming her guardian and mentor, he has captured her heart, but the young man's vanity is not in short supply, so he can let himself drip, it's nice. No matter how the author did not try, but the hero is not ideal, although it is not drawn to the emotionless villain. However, in his part everything is clear in the first half of the book, further he becomes boring and predictable.
What is the book about? It's about family, love experiences, and divine providence. The most important and satisfying message of the book is that family comes first. As long as we are together, all will be well. In Cleary this only works horizontally, for traditionally parents do not love their children. Divine Providence is all new trials for the Cleary family, all kinds of storms, adversity, illness, death, etc. And surviving all of the above is enabled by love's innate stamina and enormous monetary fortune. Wait. Where does the money come from? Well, what romance without an unrealistically rich aunt or wealthy uncle!
As for the love experiences - they fill 70-80% of the entire book. We live in the body of the girl-woman Maggie, thinking her thoughts, feeling her feelings and being tormented by doubts, fears and worries. The book is right overflowing with feelings, irrational, illogical and unfair. There are fewer thoughts, but they, too, serve to reinforce the feelings; logic does not occur often. Accordingly, Maggie's actions are mostly stupid and idiotic. The funnier it is in one of the dialogues to come across something like:
"- My wise Maggie!
- It's not wisdom, Ralph. Just common sense."
That's hilarious, who's talking about common sense?! The girl has chopped up some wood and keeps chopping it with an axe, cutting it with a chainsaw and shooting it with a flamethrower, all the while talking about common sense. Well, it's a sin to laugh at fools. Let's move on.
After reading more than half of the book, I thought I was going to get a C, but then World War II happened, damn it, the war. And from that point on, something invisibly changed, either the characters got deeper, or the admixture of politics and religion somehow changed the balance of power. The confrontation of "Maggie + her cockroaches vs. God" receded into the background, but the church's hypocrisy began to speak.
Recall that Italy was on the side of Germany and the holy church was in favor of Hitler and Mussolini. Our ideal Ralph is outraged by the state of affairs to the core and demands that the atrocities committed by the Nazis on Polish territory be made public. But he gets a very fashionable answer: Hitler is our friend against the Communists, if not him, who will stop the USSR with its aggression? So there you have it, the Vatican has been patronizingly covering Hitler and keeping silent, not wanting to denounce the horrors of war. Once again, the church has become a propagator and condoner of injustice, torture and death. Deaths for those who took up arms against the Nazis and deaths for their own Catholic flock. One could not expect more hypocrisy.
McCullough acknowledges the role of our great-grandfathers; she knew the true state of affairs. And so from these pages, "Singing in the Blackthorn" rose in my eyes. Then McCullough returned to the now familiar path of Maggie's love experiences. But now the first fiddle is played by the now grown children. That didn't spoil the overall impression. The lack of intrigue did not spoil it, because from the very beginning it was clear what with whom and how it will be, who will get together with whom, who will separate, who to live and who to leave. McCullough is not a master of unexpected twists and turns.
I don't know what happened to me when I rated it. I should have picked no higher than a 4, but I got a 5. Maybe that's just the way it should be. This book didn't bring me anything new, didn't discover America, and didn't particularly entertain me. But after "Singing in the Blackthorn" there is no sense of wasted time. I felt like I was swimming in a stream of other people's emotions, life's twists and turns and desperate thoughts, which is also a good experience. Also, I love Australia (the location of the novel) and the descriptions of nature impressed me, the feelings of McCullough's characters - bright, though strange. Maybe that's why she is recommended by the BBC?
This article was sponsored by Shawn Mostyn
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