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205th out of 257 books
—
69 voters
Sorry
by
Gail Jones
In the remote Australian outback during World War II, the emotionally stunted child of an English couple is befriended by equally adrift strangers. Perdita becomes friends with a deaf and mute boy, Billy, and an Aboriginal girl, Mary. Perdita and Mary soon come to call one another sister and begin to share a profound bond. They are content with life in this barren corner o...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
June 3rd 2008
by Europa Editions
(first published June 7th 2007)
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" “I have thought about it all my life, this moment of eclipse. It is perhaps because departures are complex, not simple, that we are tempted to cast them reductively, as if they were episodes in a novel, neat and emblematic. There is a relish which people speak of their childhoods, but also a shrewd suppression of moments of inversion, when what is deducted begins to define the experience. In the deepest folds of memory, the heaviest sediments, paradoxically, are those produced by loss. The con...more
Hm.
Hmm.
I don't know.
This was a sad book and it made me feel even sadder than I've already been. Not the good kind of sadness, but the unhappy kind. The writing was beautiful. Gail Jones was able to describe things exquisitely with an economy of words. But that also backfired, as her brief descriptions of unpleasant things were incisive. (The placenta, ack!)
I actually liked the ending. Though I still didn't love them, I feel that was when we truly got to know the characters. Till then, they'd be...more
Hmm.
I don't know.
This was a sad book and it made me feel even sadder than I've already been. Not the good kind of sadness, but the unhappy kind. The writing was beautiful. Gail Jones was able to describe things exquisitely with an economy of words. But that also backfired, as her brief descriptions of unpleasant things were incisive. (The placenta, ack!)
I actually liked the ending. Though I still didn't love them, I feel that was when we truly got to know the characters. Till then, they'd be...more
1 like · like · see review
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One of the best books I've read this year. Set in the Australian outback with World War II as a major background, this is the story of young Perdita, born to a Shakespeare quoting and otherwise unreachable depressed mother, and a grim and distant father. Unschooled, or occasionally home-schooled in a scatter-shot fashion, Perdita buries herself in her father's books which are piled in stacks throughout their tiny shack. Her companions are a deaf-mute neighbor boy, an aboriginal girl educated in...more
Dec 19, 2012
Elizabeth Lhuede
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
australian-author,
australian-women-writers
In Sorry, Jones invites readers into her tale with a graphic, disturbing opening only to abandon them, to let the narrative drift. It drifts across the Northern Territory in the war years of the early 1940s, across the lives of a displaced English couple and their run-wild child, the slow disappointments and cruelty of the anthropologist father and disintegration of his Shakespeare-obsessed wife, the child’s friendships with a succession of Aboriginal companions and a deaf-mute son of a neighbou...more
I almost stopped reading this book after about 25 pages. It just seemed too depressing...but I stuck with it and am glad I did. I found myself very engaged and haunted by it as I read further. I think there is some beautiful use of language, particularly when describing how children perceive things and adapt and grow up. I've seen some reviews where people describe it as choppy and not enough detail about certain areas, but this is because it is all filtered through the eyes of a child...it is t...more
A whisper: sssshh. The thinnest vehicle of breath.
This is a story that can only be told in a whisper.
There is a hush to difficult forms of knowing, an abashment, a sorrow, an inclination towards silence.
A powerful story wove not about the violent crime that happened on one hot afternoon in a remote outback location but of the “crime” surrounding this violence. The “crime” that is hushed, that no one would speak out loud of, and, at the time this story was written, not apologised for.
There were 3...more
This is a story that can only be told in a whisper.
There is a hush to difficult forms of knowing, an abashment, a sorrow, an inclination towards silence.
A powerful story wove not about the violent crime that happened on one hot afternoon in a remote outback location but of the “crime” surrounding this violence. The “crime” that is hushed, that no one would speak out loud of, and, at the time this story was written, not apologised for.
There were 3...more
‘Sorry’ is set in remote Western Australia, with World War II casting its shadow over the landscape. Perdita, the unwanted daughter of Nicholas and Stella, is the central character and the story is told from her perspective. Nicholas is an anthropologist who appears to have little respect for the Aborigines he is studying. Stella is obsessed with Shakespeare and not a particularly effective mother or companion. Perdita’s companions are also outcasts: Billy who is deaf and Mary, an Aboriginal gir...more
The beginning of this book was hard for me to get through. It seemed slow and a bit depressing . But I had heard good things about the book so decided to plow through. Then the second half of the book got much more insteresting.
This book is about 2 English people who marry but have a loveless marriage, who move to Australia before WW11. The wife is unhappy , mentally unstable and becomes pregnant. The husband is abusive, self absorbed and immoral. Because the wife has a mental breakdown , the u...more
This book is about 2 English people who marry but have a loveless marriage, who move to Australia before WW11. The wife is unhappy , mentally unstable and becomes pregnant. The husband is abusive, self absorbed and immoral. Because the wife has a mental breakdown , the u...more
Gail Jones writes beautifully and evocatively of the Australian bushland and its solitude. With the second world war as a backdrop, the events that occur in the tiny shack out on a remote cattle station are themselves shocking and life shattering. Jones' changes in viewpoint from first to third person are a little bothersome, but it is possible to overlook this potential flaw as the language and writing is so rich and the insights so deep.
"Sorry" attempts to be both political and beautiful as it follows the stuttering life of Perdita. Jones may love "Macbeth" a tad too much for me, and the switches from 1st to 3rd person are maddening; but I see Jones' effort through the pages of "Sorry." She is outraged with the Aboriginie/Australian relations and personifies it through Perdita; the white girl with no voice and no future.
I do struggle with my feelings about Perdita; by the end of the novel I rather dislike the unfortunate girl,...more
I do struggle with my feelings about Perdita; by the end of the novel I rather dislike the unfortunate girl,...more
Thanks for giving me this book too, Ben!
A finely crafted tale of a disintegrating English family living in Australia before WWII. Written from the daughter's point of view as she tries to make sense of her Shakespeare-spouting mother and fraud father. Good integration of horrible crimes perpetrated against Aboriginal people. This one lives on in my mind long after the final page.
A finely crafted tale of a disintegrating English family living in Australia before WWII. Written from the daughter's point of view as she tries to make sense of her Shakespeare-spouting mother and fraud father. Good integration of horrible crimes perpetrated against Aboriginal people. This one lives on in my mind long after the final page.
I wanted to like this book- based on the description- but I just couldn't get into it. It started off really slow and ended abruptly.
It's the story of girl born to British parents living in Australia who didn't belong together and didn't want her. The tale tells of her relationship with a deaf neighbor and half-Aboriginal girl/honorary sister.
It's the story of girl born to British parents living in Australia who didn't belong together and didn't want her. The tale tells of her relationship with a deaf neighbor and half-Aboriginal girl/honorary sister.
A lovely read. Jones' writing is lyrical and her use of imagery imaginative in this story of a tragedy in outback Australia in the 1940s. A small quibble is the number of quotes from Shakespeare - often the same - in full, which irritates a bit, plus the odd chunk of intrusive history not well-integrated.
A sad story told in a poetic way, about a young girl fighting her own inner war and solidarity while the world was fighting WW2. "It was possible that someone might carry a war inside them, and that isolation might go on, and on, and on. It was possible too....[to be] distorted or remade by loss."
I couldn't get through this one. there were parts where the writing was so beautiful. Passages I actually wanted to copy down...but the story has no climax, no build-up, when something big happens it's barely described.
This lovely book was a combination of Neville Shute's descriptions of the Australian outback and William Trevor's desolate sadness. It was a short, quick read with a central character that I won't soon forget.
I liked the story, some of it was written with a few to many big Intellectual words and was off putting, but some wonderful poetic parts which i loved..
First.. not so.
then still. okay she should have said sorry, but I feel really sorry for her... that's not fair.
but this book has a really nice descriptive language and I like the way things are told, the entire topic of 'forgetting'... that is probably also part of Australian culture history
then still. okay she should have said sorry, but I feel really sorry for her... that's not fair.
but this book has a really nice descriptive language and I like the way things are told, the entire topic of 'forgetting'... that is probably also part of Australian culture history
With better editing and a few bit changed it could be a four star. Love the Aussie outback
Beautifully written as ever. Tender and sad. Touches of 'Rabbit Proof Fence' about it
Jun 01, 2009
Holly
marked it as to-read
5 star recommendation from Musings
08 long list-orange prize
A girl grows up poor with dysfunctional parents in the Australian outback on the even of World War II. She eventually forms friendships, especially with an aboriginal girl, lives along books, and gets a life, sort of. Really interesting depiction of the time and place, as well as the inner life of someone who's bright but emotionally deprived.
A stunningly written novel. The language is beautiful and lyrical and so happy to have read it. The story set in Austrailia is about the unwanted daughter of Nicholas and Stella, and the an event that changes all around them. A good read.
Beautifully written with lots of big words like susuration. A lovely story of an Australian girl who can't find love from her parents but finds it from her aboriginal domestic.
I will find other books by Gail Jones.
I will find other books by Gail Jones.
Excellent insight about Aboriginal life and struggle in Australia. I read this right before Kevin Rudd made his formal 'apology' to the "Stolen Generation" on behalf of Australia.
May 08, 2013
Bud Parr
added it
Apr 29, 2013
Abby
marked it as to-read
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Gail Jones is the author of two short-story collections, a critical monograph, and the novels BLACK MIRROR, SIXTY LIGHTS, DREAMS OF SPEAKING and SORRY. Three times shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, her prizes include the WA Premier's Award for Fiction, the Nita B. Kibble Award, the Steele Rudd Award, the Age Book of the Year Award, the Adelaide Festival Award for Fiction and the ASAL Gold...more
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