An Indecent Obsession by Colleen McCullough
"An Indecent Obsession" by Colleen McCullough is a novel set in a secluded hospital camp on a remote island, focusing on the intense dynamics among a small group of characters. The story centers around Honour Langtry, who oversees a ward for soldiers needing respite, where she becomes deeply invested in her patients. When a new patient named Michael arrives, Honour's attraction to him disrupts the equilibrium of the ward and challenges her sense of duty. The novel explores themes of responsibility, family, and forbidden love, set against an oppressive environment that amplifies the characters' emotional turmoil.
The presence of a manipulative antagonist, Luce, further complicates the relationships and highlights the psychological strain on the characters. McCullough vividly depicts the harsh conditions of the island, using the setting as a catalyst for conflict and personal struggles. As Honour and Michael navigate their feelings and obligations, they confront the consequences of prioritizing personal desires over duty. Ultimately, the narrative suggests that true contentment arises when one embraces duty as an expression of love. This concise exploration of human relationships and moral dilemmas positions the novel within the broader context of McCullough's literary themes, marking it as a unique entry in her body of work.
An Indecent Obsession by Colleen McCullough
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1981
Type of work: Novel
The Work
In An Indecent Obsession McCullough has constructed an enclosed world, a microcosm in which a controlled population of characters interact with no relief expected from outside influences. This isolation causes emotions to run high and causes reactions to events to be more intense than they might be otherwise.
Honour Langtry is in charge of the “troppo” ward, a hospital barrack for soldiers who need a rest. It is located in part of an almost evacuated hospital camp on a remote island. She has only five patients and expects the situation to be stable over the few weeks remaining before everyone goes home. Even more than the typical McCullough heroine, she is obsessed by duty. She feels responsible to do as much as possible for her patients, although she is hampered by having no special psychological training. Her solution has been to form them into a supportive family unit with herself as the matriarch.
At this point Michael, a new patient, arrives. Honour is immediately attracted to him, which upsets the balance in the ward as well as her own sense of her responsibilities. McCullough thus incorporates most of her standard themes—duty, family, forbidden love, and the influence of the environment upon people’s lives. Although the story has a human villain, Luce, an arrogant, twisted man who enjoys torturing the others, it is the island and the ward, in which the characters’ military responsibility compels them to remained trapped, that are the catalysts for the more catastrophic events of the book. McCullough describes the humidity, the mold, the insects, and their effects upon each character with a vividness which leaves little doubt as to their centrality to the story.
Honour and Michael attempt to place personal satisfaction above duty, with predictably dire results. Although they both subsequently devote themselves to selfless lives bounded purely by responsibility, their infraction marks them and they continue to pay for it. Only when Honour realizes that duty is “only another name for love” and surrenders to it without hoping for anything more, does she regain some measure of tranquillity.
This is one of McCullough’s shortest novels, and it trespasses further into the language of romance than her other works. McCullough has also allowed these characters more insight into one anothers’ thoughts and motivations than is perhaps believable. At the same time, the novel deals harshly with the characters, who are not allowed the slightest grain of personal happiness.
Bibliography
Bridgwood, Christine. “Family Romances: The Contemporary Popular Family Saga.” In The Progress of Romance: The Politics of Popular Fiction, edited by Jean Radford. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
Brookner, Anita. “Continental Drift.” The Times Literary Supplement, no. 3941 (October 7, 1977).
Dam, Julie K. L., and John Hannah. “Thorny Bird.” People Weekly 54, no. 22 (November 27, 2000): 213.
DeMarr, Mary Jean. Colleen McCullough: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Greenberg, Joanne. “Love and Duty.” The New York Times Book Review 86 (October 25, 1981): 14, 54.
Hall, Melissa Mia. “A Very American Whodunit.” Publishers Weekly 253, no. 16 (April 17, 2006): 162.
Morris, Gwen. “An Australian Ingredient in American Soap: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.” Journal of Popular Culture 24, no. 4 (Spring, 1991).
Parasuram, Laxmi. “The Thorn Birds: An Australian Odyssey.” Journal of Australian Literature 1 (June, 1990): 101-110.
Steinberg, Sybil. “Colleen McCullough: The Indefatigable Australian Author Has Embarked on a Five-Volume Series Set in Ancient Rome.” Publishers Weekly 237, no. 37 (September 14, 1990): 109-110.