Wow... There is so much that I want to say about this book, and I don't know if I will really be able to do it all justice. I think I'm just going to go for my tried and true method and just ask you to tag along with my ramblings... Hopefully it will make sense at the end. :)On the surface, "Tim" is a story of an unlikely relationship between a child-like 25 year old mentally retarded man, the title character, and a 43 year old straight-laced and emotionally distant spinster, Mary Horton. Naturally, their relationship is mutually beneficial, with each of them teaching the other how to live. But the surface story, while absolutely moving and beautiful, is just the bottom layer of the cake. McCullough supplements that base with layer upon layer of detail and depth and insight and truth. While the finished product by another author may have been a tasty and even nice looking cake, in McCullough's expert hands it's something too amazing to actually mar by eating it. You want to keep this cake. You want to cherish it and remember every beautiful detail of it.We're introduced to Tim, and from the beginning he's impossible not to love and want to protect. Tim's child-like innocence is what really broke my heart. He is tricked and fooled by his "friends", and is upset afterward, but not because he was tricked. His is not a knee-jerk reaction to being laughed at that causes him distress, it is the fact that he knows that he is not able to understand WHY he is being laughed at that distresses him. He seeks acceptance and understanding and love just like we all do. All of us, that is, except Mary Horton. From the age of 14, she struggled and worked hard on her own to make a life for herself. Unfortunately, due to having a very hard childhood, her idea of "life" is one devoid of any personal relationships. She's never had a boyfriend, never wanted one, doesn't have any personal friends, and her only pleasures are solitary ones, her successes are material ones. After a chance meeting with Tim, who fascinates her simply because of his sheer attractiveness, they each begin to fill a hole in the other person's life that neither knew they had. This isn't recognized until much later, but it warmed my heart to see them teaching each other what life is really about. McCullough's descriptions of emotion and perception of the world is amazing. I'm not sure I've ever read anything like it. Her way with words is brilliant. It's like she's imparting secrets that you already knew, but just couldn't understand because the words are just words without MEANING. Even sitting here writing this, I'm at a loss to describe just what it is that touched me so deeply, but I'm close to tears just thinking about the way that she makes simple concepts turn into life-altering truths. But more than that, she made me think of things in a way that I would never have thought of before. For instance, at one point when Tim is sleeping, Mary ponders what his dreams are like: Did he venture forth as limited in his nocturnal wanderings as he was during his waking life, or did the miracle happen which freed him from all his chains?I had to stop and think about this. On the one hand, dreaming that you are not fettered by a mental handicap would lend the dreams a wonderful freedom, but on the other, I would imagine that waking up to realize that that freedom was only an illusion would be torture day after day. So, I hope that is not the case. Another thing that I really enjoyed about McCullough's writing was its vividness. Her characters are just ALIVE and jump off the page. Their local slang and way of speaking had me laughing even while I had tears in my eyes, because while the phrases they use are hilarious, what they are actually saying is true in any language. The characters are memorable, and none of them, not one, pulls any punches. I love that they say what they mean, and mean what they say. Brutally honest, perhaps, but if what needs to be said is important enough, sometimes it takes a brutal delivery to make it sink in. I also loved the little snippets of Australian life and culture we get to see. I love reading about other cultures and people, and the only thing that I wish was extended was the small section dealing with the Australian bush. I wanted to see the people and find out how Mary would interact with them. Anyway. I loved this book. I'm immensely glad that I read it, and can safely say that I will soon be reading much, much more of McCullough's writing.
I loved this book, but then I love ALL Colleen McCullough's books. She has such a wonderfully descriptive writing style.Tim is a twenty-five year old man who has the mental capacity of a child. The language in the book regarding this might be offensive to some, but it's most likely reflective of the attitudes of the time. Tim is described as a retard and 'not the full quid.' I didn't find this offensive because the author has such a brilliant way of writing authentic dialogue that the coarse terms used fitted the characters. Tim is a labourer and lives with his elderly parents and his younger sister Dawnie. He is incredibly good looking and I loved the way the author managed to find many ways to describe his beauty, even though at one time she compared him to a Greek God. While working as a Labourer, Tim meets Mary, a forty-three year old wealthy spinster. Mary is very stiff and proper and likes everything to be impeccably neat and tidy, even down to removing all her clothes when she uses the bathroom at work to avoid wrinkling her skirt. Mary asks Tim if he would like to do some gardening work for her on Saturdays, and so an unlikely friendship develops between the two.The portrayal of Tim is excellent. He is simply adorable with his simple outlook on life and in the way he takes sheer pleasure out of the simplest of things.His parents are well drawn characters too. They have built a happy home for their two children and seem to just accept whatever life throws at them with good grace and good humour. They often remark how Tim is so beautiful but lacks intelligence, whereas his sister is very intelligent but not quite so beautiful.As the friendship between Mary and Tim develops, Tim's parents start to notice a positive change in Tim and agree to let Mary take Tim on trips to her beach house even though they have never met her. In the book Mary has pure white hair so when Dawnie catches a small glimpse of her the family assume that Mary is a lot older than her 43 years. A fact which comes into play later in the story. The friendship between the two is so expertly written that you can't help rooting for them, despite the difficulties of such a situation. The reader is as conflicted as Mary is when she is one minute admiring his manly body and the next tucking him into bed at night and kissing his forehead like a child. Mary wars with herself over this and struggles to make sense of her growing affection for Tim.I won't say much more about the plot for fear of spoiling it, but it is definitely a very interesting read and does hold up a mirror to our own attitudes towards mental disability (for want of a better term). Colleen McCullough always writes such rich characters and describes scenes so vividly it's easy to fall deeply into the world she is depicting. The story is very moving and while the main plot is about Tim and Mary, I also found myself very taken with his parent's story as well. After I finished this book, I watched the movie starring Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie and really enjoyed it. The movie stayed true to the dialogue of the book quite well, though they did change some things like Mary didn't have pure white hair and Dawnie is older than Tim in the movie.The book was the author's first and is decades old, but it's still a very good read and a wonderful insight into an almost taboo subject matter.
What do You think about Tim (2000)?
I liked the special and unique relationship between Tim and Mary. Written in the 1970s, Mary is a spinster in her forties and Tim has the mind of a child and the body and looks of a Greek god. The two bring out the best in each other and provide a new lease of life. Their relationship improves their lives too. Before, Mary leads a quiet repressed life of order and routine. Tim literally adds colour to her grey life by suggesting a red table and stool into Mary's home. Tim is a gentle childlike soul in a cruel world. His exquisite looks are at odds with his mental handicap. Mary sees past this to the real Tim. They both create their own little world and exist peacefully having to ignore outside judgements. Their relationship develops from friendship to a special kind of love. A mentally handicapped young man and a middle-aged woman falling in love is somewhat morally dubious. They even marry at the end. Mary becomes his caretaker and wife. However both are happy and it works for them but not entirely for me. I can see the positive aspects to the relationship though.
—Joanne
With the recent passing of Colleen McCullough and seeing her novel 'Tim' on the Kindle Daily Deals, I thought it was time I read one of her books. Most people have heard of 'The Thorn Birds' however up until now I haven't read any of her books.When I started reading 'Tim' I noticed my edition had been published in 2000 so I was expecting a reasonably recent setting. What I didn't realise was this novel had been originally published in 1974 so the language used was not what I was expecting. I should have guessed with the novel starting out with two women emptying their chamber pots - not a present day occurrence in Sydney.At the time Colleen was writing this, I was a young boy in mid-primary school. I had forgotten that the values and beliefs of the day were different to what they are now. For example I found the constant use of the word retard disturbing, the addressing of adults as Mr, Miss or Mrs strange, women in their forties having grey hair and being considered old not making sense (I realise that women in their forties still have grey hair, they just cover it up better these days) and the ockerisms just didn't sit right with me. But then I realised the setting was in the early seventies and that the character Mary Horton would be three years older than my mother was at the time. As such, I was able to feel comfortable with the setting and the style of writing.The main story is about the love that develops between Mary, a 43 year old spinster, and Tim, a young man with the body of a Greek god but the IQ of a child. There are other love stories within the book, the love of Tim's parents for each other, the friendship of Mary and her employer and the caring nature of Mary's neighbour.On the surface, Mary seemed to be the one constantly giving of herself with Tim taking from her however without Tim, Mary would not have grown and flourished from her grey world to a world of colour. Mary had to overcome the prejudices of the time but when I think of it, they are still the prejudices of today. The only thing that has changed is the need to marry to maintain respectability. The age difference and the perception of taking advantage of a disabled person remains.It is a story of the innocence and vulnerability of Tim and the pure intentions of others clashing with prejudice and their natural instincts, however buried they may have been. The intentions were not always the right ones but they were always intended in the best interest of Tim. I found jealousy to be an emotion that was explored in several places - the jealousy of Tim's sister of the attention given to Tim and Tim's jealousy of the attention Mary gave to his father.Colleen McCullough had me hooked right from the first page. I can't remember the last time I finished an average sized novel in a matter of hours but I did it with this one. I finished the book infused with a feeling of warmth and love. I have a fair bit of the cynic in me and tend to erect barriers between myself and the outside world but this book left me feeling good. A lot like that warm blanket you pull up around your ears on a cool, crisp morning.I feel sad that we have lost Colleen and are deprived of more of her words and stories. Where do all those unwritten stories go, the ones that were floating around in her imagination? Such a loss.We should be grateful however that we have the ones we do and they will live on in her memory. I will be reading more of her books.
—Stephen Kerwin
Nunca tinha lido nada da autora Colleen McCullough, embora já tivesse ouvido falar muitas vezes da sua escrita com palavras até bastante positivas.Durante muito tempo, a oportunidade não se apresentou pelo que a vontade de experimentar a autora foi ficando esquecida no meio de tantos outros livros, até que comprei o livro “Tim” que é parte integrante da colecção Sábado. Ora aí está a oportunidade que há tanto tempo andavas à procura, pensei eu para mim. Mas não foi bem assim e o livro acabou por estar muito tempo na estante à espera. Hoje, o dia em que passei a última página do livro e o fechei, não me arrependo de o livro ter esperado tanto tempo para ser descoberto. Acho que o li na altura certa e na disposição correcta. Com novas autoras, tento sempre não criar expectativas, embora por vezes tal prospecto seja impraticável. No entanto, devo dizer que fiquei agradavelmente surpreendida com este livro. Antes de começar o livro, li a sinopse e fiquei sem saber o que esperar da história que retratava. Sendo que fala numa temática sensível e que é bastante delicada, é sempre difícil saber o que esperar de um livro que fala sobre deficiências tanto mentais como físicas, embora deva provavelmente fazer notar que este ano também já li um livro da Deborah Smith, intitulado “A Doçura da Chuva”, que também analisa este tipo de temática com um tacto impressionável e uma beleza incrível, pelo que fui bastante positiva e com um espírito aberto para esta leitura. De início, ao ler as situações por que Tim passava, senti um aperto no coração de tanta pena que tinha dele e da vida que ele tinha, mas depressa esse sentimento se alternou e se tornou admiração pela personagem que a autora conseguiu construir e fazer passar aos seus leitores, como um adulto como outro qualquer que deve ser olhado e considerado igual a todos os homens. Ao evoluir na leitura, fui ficando cada vez mais agarrada às personagens que me cativaram, pela sua bondade e pelas suas características únicas de cada um. É sem dúvida uma família muito interessante. E a entrada da Mary Horton ainda a veio melhorar. O que mais apreciei no livro foi o facto de não ter sido apenas o Tim que evoluiu como ser-humano, mas também a Mary desabrochou e saiu da sua carapaça.O único ponto negativo que posso apontar a este livro é aquele final. Na minha opinião, deixou um pouco a desejar, ficou a faltar qualquer coisa.Gostava que a autora tivesse dado uma direcção menos vaga ao assunto. No entanto, isto não afecta a minha apreciação geral do livro.Gostei de todas as personagens, foram todas muito bem construídas, bastante realistas. Uma história ternurenta que nos mete a pensar e que derrete os corações mais românticos.
—Filipa
