by Colleen McCullough
After reading Thorn Birds, I was really looking forward to
reading this other book of the same author considering the impact the first had
had.
An Indecent Obsession is an unusual tale of an unusual nurse
and her unusual patients of Ward X. The title does tickle your brain a bit
throughout and you have to wait until the very end to grasp its meaning in the
sense the author had wanted. Believe me you'll come up with many explanations
for yourself until you realize that they all had the same start and end.
The seven main characters are aptly represented with the
correct blend of black and white for all. I was deeply intrigued by the whole World
War II end background setup, with Ward X being a ‘troppo’ center for
emotionally disturbed and war bitten army men.
Sister Honour Langtry, the protagonist is a young nurse in-charge
of the Ward X. She is in every sense quite a woman to look upto with her
upright personality and sense of duty. This novel is a revelation in many ways.
Not everyday you get read about the life and anxieties of men and women who
served in the army during the World Wars. How-so-ever fictional there is always
some base and ground to every argument thus presented; the sheer realization of
the wastefulness of wars and bloodshed. More than the presented story, such views
are going to hold strong on your mind once you're finally through. Simple yet
intense, with new discoveries waiting to be read after every few slow-and-monotonous
pages, the novel does leave a mark on the minds of its readers.
