《荊棘鳥》讀完已經一兩個星期了，想著自己欠的英文讀書筆記，在強迫自己寫的同時，腦海裏鑽出一個人－－老太太Mary Carson，那日，茵茵在我文章後麵留言提到她後，這個人物一直在我腦海揮之不去。
小說中的Mary隻是一個配角，並非主線，但是她死前修改的遺囑，留下的13million英鎊的遺產，就像丟下一顆重磅炸彈，激起千層浪，讓故事起伏跌宕。小說也是圍繞著這份遺產而變化展開的。
Mary是個富婆遺霜，膝下沒有兒女，守寡三四十年不願意再嫁，因為她願意享受這種“女王”一樣的身份，不願意轉移財產。她經營牧場，靠的是自己的能力、專橫；她財富的聚集靠的是她的妥善安排和投資的眼光。但是她畢竟是個女人，還有著柔情的一麵。65歲那年，她喜歡上了二十八歲的牧師Ralph。Ralph從愛爾蘭發配到澳大利亞西北農村，沮喪、失落、無望，一度仰仗Mary的財富、權勢, 兩人關係曖昧，有那麽一點現代版的富婆包養小鮮肉的味道。然而Mary侄女Meggie的出現，像沙漠中出現的一棵含苞待放的玫瑰，像天空劃過的一道亮光，喚醒了Ralph沉寂的心靈。他倆懵懵懂懂、隱藏地愛著，還是被Mary敏感地察覺到了。她覬覦嫉妒Ralph對Maggie的愛，對Ralph說，“我把你輸給了Meggie, 但是我已經確信Meggie也得不到你。”因此，她改了遺囑，把一千三百萬英鎊留給Ralph掌控，知道Ralph會為了自己的仕途放棄Meggie。她死之前交給Ralph一個信封，告訴他，“裏麵躺著他的命運和靈魂”， 並對他說，”我比你想象的還要了解你”。Ralph心裏為此恨得咬牙切齒，罵這個至死都想用錢來掌控他的女人，一個死了都不忘報複他的毒蜘蛛。
一場賭注由此拉開帷幕。Mary那雙老眼沒有昏花，卻似鷹眼洞察人心，洞察人性。在那晚，她還跟Ralph提及撒旦把耶穌帶到山巔，用腳下的世界誘惑耶穌的故事，讓人不禁揣測，Mary在此是不是代表著撒旦的化身， 是不是在用她的13 million英鎊來誘惑心愛的Ralph？ 結果，Ralph沒能經受住考驗，一生都在名譽、地位和情欲、心愛女人之間糾結爭鬥。
Mary報複Ralph的手段雖然有點過激，但是此舉卻也證明她愛得有多深，恨得有多切，側麵反映出她的個性。然而，她並非是個沒有自尊的女人。在她65歲那年，當時依附她的Ralph主動提出跟她做愛，被她一笑了之。她不願被人憐憫、被人施舍。可當Ralph厭惡地拒絕了她最後“像情侶般親吻”她的要求時，她怒斥Ralph是個偽君子，說後悔自己當年沒有跟他上床惡心他。一個行將就木的女人，在生命的最後一刻擲地有聲地罵一個她愛的人，可謂個性鮮明，敢做敢為。
小說中的Mary還是個宿命論者。她厭倦了生命，在她七十二歲生日結束之晚，宣稱自己今晚即將死去，自己的命運掌握在自己手裏，人不想死是因為有口氣撐著，而她今晚就要鬆了這口氣離世了。果然如她所願，她當晚真的離開了人世。牧師第二天從她軀體腐爛的程度，推算出Mary上床後幾分鍾就撒手人寰了。作者就此賦予小說宿命論的色彩。
“讓我來告訴你, 我這個蠢笨的身子下還有一個年輕的心，我還有知覺，還有欲望，還有夢想。我的雙腳踢著想掙脫身體的束縛。上帝對人最大的報複就是讓我們變老。他為什麽不讓我們的心靈一起老去呢？”
“拉爾夫，你永遠不會知道我多想把我生命的三十年一腳踢出窗口。如果魔鬼來找我，願意他買走我的靈魂換回我的青春，我一秒鍾內就成交，絕不會像浮士德那個老傻瓜那樣愚蠢地後悔。”
這兩段話倒出了Mary的心聲。可以這麽說，從某種角度，Mary追逐的不是Ralph的愛，她是想用錢在Ralph身上找回自己青春的影子，證明自己也可以重煥青春。一個人年輕的時候並不知道青春的價值，任意揮霍，而當青春真正離去，兩鬢蒼蒼時，就會像Mary一樣，發現青春是無價的，再多的錢買不回青春，再多的錢買不到真愛真情。作者在塑造Mary這個人物上是成功的。她筆下一個二十世紀初的富婆，一個cougar lady, 在當今二十一世紀物欲橫流的今天不乏存在。Mary這個人物的時代性、現實性、無地域性讓人產生共鳴，發人深省。這是小說成功的地方。
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Mary Carson is not a main character in the novel The Thorn Birds, but she is really a character! She was the owner of a vast sheep station Drogheda in the northwestern Australia. Rich she was, she was a widow, whose husband died young and whose only child died in infancy. At age 65, she wrote to her only living brother Paddy, inviting him and his family to live on her land, and intended to leave her fortune to him after her death. Ralph was a young good-looking priest , whom Mary was very enamored of. For quite a few years, he was like a cub to a cougar. But the appearance of Meggie changed him. Sensing the love between Ralph and Meggie, Mary was jealous and spiteful. She devised a new will before her death, in which her assets, a total of 13 million pounds, was donated to the Church in the hand of Ralph, as she was sure that Ralph would not give up his world for Meggie. “I must lose you to Meggie, but I’ve made sure she doesn’t get you, either.”, said Mary. And just as she predicted, Ralph failed the test, selling his “soul” for the 13 million pounds, as the ambition of advancing his career outweighed his love towards Meggie.
Mary is a shrewd woman with brain. She managed her land with an iron fist and autocratically, and thus wielded much power in the area. Her fortune was amassed not just through running the sheep station, but through setting up an investment company called Michar Limited. She was a successful woman in business. She chose not to remarry in her long 40 years’ widowhood, maintaining her status of being indisputably a queen. Being “a staunch pillar of the Church all her life”, she fell in love with Ralph for his youth, wits and charm. But in Ralph’s eye later, she was a poisonous and vicious spider, who spun the web that tangled him inside. When Ralph turned down in disgust her last plea of kissing her in the mouth like lovers, Mary was enraged, calling him a “sham”, “an impotent and useless sham”, poignantly reminding Ralph of his offer to make love with her seven years ago.
What still echoed in my mind is what she told Father Ralph the night before she died. Quoted below are the two passages, the revelations of a 72-year-old woman:
“Well, Father de Bricassarrt, let me tell you something.Inside this stupid body I’m still young—I still feel, I still want, I still dream, I still kick up my heels and chafe at restrictions like my body. Old age is the bitterest vengeance our vengeful God inflicts upon us. Why doesn’t He age our minds as well?”
“Ralph, you’ll never know how I’ve longed to throw thirty years of my life out of the window. If the Devil had come to me and offered to buy my soul for the chance to be young again, I’d have sold it in a second, and not stupidly regretted the bargain like that old idiot Faust.”
Mary’s pain was acute to realize that her still throbbing young heart was buried in a dying body, and there is nothing she can do, however longing she is of being young again. She is like a withered flower, envying an unfolding rose, in the knowledge that it will never bloom again.
She won the game, but then so what? She died and could only see her achieved revenge from the heaven. Rich as she was, she was powerless over the priceless youth. She could not buy it back. Neither could she ever buy the love, the true love from Ralph. Her revenge was a bitter attack, to torment Ralph between his spiritual pursuit and his worldly lust. But that was all she can do. Money may bring the glory, fame, and power when one lives. But in face of death, everybody is equal. Rich or poor, we are from ashes to ashes, holding nothing before death except dust and ashes.
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Below is copied from the book covers and preface.
The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early part of this century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless old sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O’Neil, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.
The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph’s course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie’s, except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones—but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.
Wonderful characters people this book: strong and gentle Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her; violent, tormented Frank and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie’s children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself: stark, its flowering, prey to gigantic cycle of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.
Australian-born Colleen McCullough found devoted readers for her fine, compact first novel, Tim. The Thorn Birds, entirely different in story and scope, is that most exhilarating of reading experiences—a book that enfolds the reader in its capacious arms. There is simply no way to put it down once you have begun, or to separate yourself from the lives and loves of this fascinating family.
From the preface:
2. There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend.
