The Thornbirds
Have you ever come across those recipes that go something like this: Take 2 ounces of compassion, 6 ounces of love, 8 ounces of pity and make a total,sticky,gooey mess out of it?
Lets try that with a book, shall we?
For starters, take Roots, by Alex Haley, and rip its skeleton out. That will give you a skeleton of a plot- a story that stretches across a few generations, generally leading from penury and misfortune to rosy blue skies.
Move on to the Swiss Family Robinson, the excitement of a family that finds itself in a new land.Pluck from it exotic animals and unusual trees - transplant into our skeleton.
Move on to Little Women and pick out the rich cast of female protagonists.The dimunitive Fiona or Fee, who lives to be a ripe old age. The little girl Meggie, where the story starts, and in a way, ends. The tomboy Justine, and the toll of time.
Add an undercurrent of unrequited love, in the same mould as the recent Indian movie Sins. Its not a very original idea, and has not been dealt with in any particularly remarkable manner.
It seemed like an absolute mishmash of many many books I've read - in fact, there was even one small piece that reminded me of Atlas Shrugged.And its just as interesting to note that I don't believe any of it was deliberate - it just happens that the story is such. Two things kept me going - the fact that this is pretty much the only book I've ever read about the Down Under, and my curiousity about where the book was leading. I learnt a couple of things about sheep ( That they are too dull to eat grass if its cut, and that it takes about 150 acres of land per sheep), and that was that as far as furthering one's knowledge goes. Oh, that, and a curious color described as "Ashes of roses"...seems that is the color of victorian dresses, so I'm guessing its a grayish color.
I'd rate it a 5/10. ( Funny to see its rated almost a perfect 5 stars on amazon - I guess I don't know literature any ;)