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9th out of 13 books
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6 voters
Five Bells
by
Gail Jones
On a radiant day in Sydney, four adults converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Crowds of tourists mix with the locals, enjoying the glorious surroundings and the play of light on water.
But each of the four carries a complicated history from elsewhere; each is haunted by past intimacies, secrets and guilt: Ellie is preoccup...more
But each of the four carries a complicated history from elsewhere; each is haunted by past intimacies, secrets and guilt: Ellie is preoccup...more
Paperback, 218 pages
Published
February 1st 2011
by Random House Australia
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I read the first fifteen or so pages of this book and skimmed through the rest.
The book takes its name from the poem by Kenneth Slessor. The two works have in common the setting (Sydney Harbour) and the theme of remembering. As works of literature they are poles apart.
The four main characters separately get off the train at Circular Quay and wander around Sydney for a day reminiscing about their lives. These four, and indeed most of the minor characters in the book, come across as insipid depres...more
The book takes its name from the poem by Kenneth Slessor. The two works have in common the setting (Sydney Harbour) and the theme of remembering. As works of literature they are poles apart.
The four main characters separately get off the train at Circular Quay and wander around Sydney for a day reminiscing about their lives. These four, and indeed most of the minor characters in the book, come across as insipid depres...more
It's a love story of sorts to the Opera House and the fact that the author chose four protagonists (to represent the four sails of the House) could be just a moot point.
It does feel very airy in its proses and the plot can feel like it's going nowhere. It reminds me of "Ghostwritten" by David Mitchell which works on a more linear fashion as it moves from character to character (with a glancing look back) from beginning to the end of the novel and the voices are clearer/stronger.
It is always dif...more
It does feel very airy in its proses and the plot can feel like it's going nowhere. It reminds me of "Ghostwritten" by David Mitchell which works on a more linear fashion as it moves from character to character (with a glancing look back) from beginning to the end of the novel and the voices are clearer/stronger.
It is always dif...more
Everyone has a story. Gail Jones selects four people who happen to be in Sydney, at Circular Quay, on a January Saturday, and around them weaves their stories, particularly their past. Four people, yet 'Five' Bells. This is explained close to the end of this short novel and the title also references Kenneth Slessor's famous poem. Unknowingly all four are connected by an incident that seems inconsequential at the time of its telling. The writing is superb, particularly in creating setting. I was...more
A very literary read with astonishing prose. The book is so poetic and there is not a single turn of phrase or paragraph that is wasted. It is a relatively short read, but it feels much longer, and I mean that positively. It is fantastic that a writer can make us feel and understand her characters in such a short book. I found myself re-reading a lot of the paragraphs, I had to, to absorb the beauty of the words. On page 12 there is this description from Pei Xing one of the four characters in th...more
Gail Jones' Sydney is an almost mythical setting for four characters who carry stained pasts and will face new threats. Jones intersects four foreign and local lives at Circular Quay, each entranced by the shimmering water and magical setting, each at a point of deep self-examination in their solitary lives. By the end of the day tragedy will carve new wounds and mark this flawless day with fresh sorrow. Jones' rich language is at times overreaching and cloudy, but it is appropriate for the slow...more
The riches and richness of this book were almost too much to bear. Well before the last page I realised that this would be a book to savour, many times over. Gail Jones uses language in such a way that it opens all your senses to the images, ideas and emotions she describes. The single, glorious summer Sydney day is one I have experienced myself and was startled time and again throughout my reading by the jolts of recognition that I shared with each of the characters. However, this was no mere n...more
I love the idea of this book--it's something I've often thought about myself just walking around in the world. Five people randomly pass each other in a crowded urban setting. What events in each of their lives bring them together in this exact place and time? We all have such complex lives. Take a photograph of people in any urban scene, and tell the story of each person, and it will contain love, heartache, joy, and suffering. This is essentially what the author did here. I came to care about...more
The action of this beautifully written novel takes place on a summer day by the Harbour in Sydney. Four people cross paths at Circular Quay in the shadow at the great Harbour Bridge and the spectacular Opera House. Their memories stretch back into their various pasts. A Chinese immigrant imprisoned under Mao; an Irish woman mourning her dead brother and a couple who shared a teen-age romance in a remote town in Western Australia.
This book is a reminder of Australia's present day multiracism whil...more
This book is a reminder of Australia's present day multiracism whil...more
We enter public places almost every day of our lives and pay scant attention to those circling around us. As this wonderful novel notes in one place, people congregate seemingly randomly at monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge or in this case, the Sydney Opera House on Circular Quay. Four people are singled out and given inner lives that are driven by their past lives. This deceptively slim book packs a wallop in terms of characterization, plot and literary vision. There are in...more
Jones is known for her lyrical imagery and Five Bells (the novel, not the poem) is no different. When you’re not reading about a character’s past experiences, you’re being educated in the stunning imagery of a Sydney summer’s day.
Overall, Five Bells is a good read and Jones does well to keep the story within the limiting parameters of one day. In fact, the limited time frame actually helps Jones tackle some heavy issues without making the book depressing.
(Excerpt from full review of Five Bells b...more
Overall, Five Bells is a good read and Jones does well to keep the story within the limiting parameters of one day. In fact, the limited time frame actually helps Jones tackle some heavy issues without making the book depressing.
(Excerpt from full review of Five Bells b...more
To be fair, I didn't actually finish the book so I'm not sure I can really rate it. But seventy pages in to a two hundred page book, I still had no idea what the book was about or what was happening. I think we have established well and truly on Goodreads that I like things like narrative and plot. I do make exceptions, but generally modernist and postmodernist writers aren't really my favorites. I really wanted to like this book, and it's possible that had I stuck with it...I might have. But it...more
The language and imagery at the beginning of this book made me feel as though I were back in Sydney, right at Circular Quay. Four interesting and different people, Ellie, James, Catherine and Pei Xing, are at the Quay on the same day and we see the world through their different viewpoints. The structure of the novel with the characters' stories being told in retrospect is unusual and does not allow for the immediacy of a normal presentation, but it adds an interesting twist. The denouement is st...more
A dense, poetic, beautifully written novel set during one day in Sydney, Australia, Five Bells is one of those novels that is read more for its lyrical language than for a compelling story. Not much really happens at all, other than the thoughts and feelings of four adults – three women and a man – whose paths cross, or fail to cross, at Circular Quay, under the arches of the Sydney Opera House. However, the inner life of those four adults is so well-imagined that the novel has its own compulsio...more
This novel starts with a picturesque description of Sydney’s iconic Circular Quay, capturing the life, the colour and the excitement of a glorious day. Into this scene step four finely-drawn characters – Catherine, Ellie, James and Pei Xing, all with their own backgrounds and “baggage.”
This is the account of those four people on a single afternoon, and the irruption into that story of a small child, whose presence touches everything.
The novel is penned with a powerful, yet light touch. Superfici...more
This is the account of those four people on a single afternoon, and the irruption into that story of a small child, whose presence touches everything.
The novel is penned with a powerful, yet light touch. Superfici...more
This book was just too slow to hold my attention. The set-up for action/interaction took too long to grab me. I also struggled to stay abreast of who was who as it switched back and forth between characters.
Gail Jones was one of my lecturers at university and I was in awe of her vocabulary and the exquisite language in her short story collection The House of Breathing. I also enjoyed Sixty Lights very much. In this novel she seemed to be working in a more contemporary urban realm and I did not f...more
Gail Jones was one of my lecturers at university and I was in awe of her vocabulary and the exquisite language in her short story collection The House of Breathing. I also enjoyed Sixty Lights very much. In this novel she seemed to be working in a more contemporary urban realm and I did not f...more
Five Bells by Gail Jones tells the story of four very different people over the course of a Saturday in Sydney. The story meanders through their lives bringing up both good and bad memories. All have been touched by death but survived to various degrees.
It felt a bit clunky in the beginning but then the book hit it's stride and I found it haunting and beautiful. I also loved being able to see every place they went to in the novel having been there myself. It's a wonderful book that will haunt yo...more
It felt a bit clunky in the beginning but then the book hit it's stride and I found it haunting and beautiful. I also loved being able to see every place they went to in the novel having been there myself. It's a wonderful book that will haunt yo...more
Loved the concept and the characters – a great snapshot of the diversity of people on any one day around Sydney harbour - but was disappointed with how quickly and with the way the book finished – it felt abrupt and incomplete. I would have liked the book to be longer as I felt I was just getting to know the characters and wanted to get to know more of the “now” of their lives and have that developed.
Overall though I really enjoyed her writing style and will be actively searching out more of her...more
Overall though I really enjoyed her writing style and will be actively searching out more of her...more
Ok I must say I have no clue about what went on in this book. At first I had a hard time getting into it, and I picked up and put it down several times. But I forced myself to finish it today. And I flew through it!
I know we are following 4 different people. All converging on the same area in Australia. Each with their own things to sort through. Of course. But it was brilliantly written! I loved each one of the characters, even Catherine. My favorite though was Pei Xing. I loved her spirit. I w...more
I know we are following 4 different people. All converging on the same area in Australia. Each with their own things to sort through. Of course. But it was brilliantly written! I loved each one of the characters, even Catherine. My favorite though was Pei Xing. I loved her spirit. I w...more
Reminiscent of Virginia Woolf’s MRS.DALLOWAY and evoking Joyce’s story, “The Dead”, Gail Jones’s stunningly beautiful literary novel follows four characters as they move about near Sydney Harbour’s Circular Quay on a glorious January Saturday. Prospective readers who relish the plot-driven novel should be forewarned that given its lack of significant external action, FIVE BELLS is likely not the book for them; rather, it is a work for readers receptive to a meditation on memory and the inner lif...more
This is my first read of a Gail Jones novel, and while the setting was well known, the story seemed all over the place to me.
For each of the four participants of this story, Catherine, James, Ellie and Pei Xing, their lives both in the past, and in the ‘here-now’ were told over the period of one Saturday on a summer day in Sydney. The four of them were each travelling, separately, but by train, to Circular Quay. Ellie to meet James, as they had known each other as children, but hadn’t seen each...more
For each of the four participants of this story, Catherine, James, Ellie and Pei Xing, their lives both in the past, and in the ‘here-now’ were told over the period of one Saturday on a summer day in Sydney. The four of them were each travelling, separately, but by train, to Circular Quay. Ellie to meet James, as they had known each other as children, but hadn’t seen each...more
Feb 21, 2012
Shelleyrae at Book'd Out
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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Gail Jones begins Five Bells with an evocative depiction of a sunny day in Sydney's Circular Quay. I felt as if I stood in amongst the ebb and flow of the crowd, feeling the sun on my face, scenting the salt air, hearing the chug of the ferry and the squeal of a slowing train. From the corner of my eye I can almost see Ellie gazing at the water, Pei Qing exchanging a few dollars for an ice-cream, James frowning absently at the crowds, Catherine shading her eyes against the sun to watch the climb...more
Apr 17, 2011
Magdalena
added it
“But I hear nothing, nothing...only bells,
Five bells, the bumpkin calculus of Time.”
Like the epic poem from which it takes its title, Gail Jones’ Five Bells is a story about a series of inner illuminations or moments. From the start of the book and right through it, the reader is thrust into the very heart of four characters in a single location – Circular Quay in Sydney. At the centre of each of the lives we move in and out of, is the Sydney Opera House. It’s sails form, to use Jones’ own word...more
Five bells, the bumpkin calculus of Time.”
Like the epic poem from which it takes its title, Gail Jones’ Five Bells is a story about a series of inner illuminations or moments. From the start of the book and right through it, the reader is thrust into the very heart of four characters in a single location – Circular Quay in Sydney. At the centre of each of the lives we move in and out of, is the Sydney Opera House. It’s sails form, to use Jones’ own word...more
I enjoy reading books written in different countries. This book is written by an Australian about a group of people who all happen to be in the same area of Sydney on the same day. I do not want to give too much away but you learn about each person who are varied and have led interesting lives. Each yearning for someone or something they have lost. The city of Sydney and it's beautiful harbor are an added character in the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and was sorry when it was over.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story and was sorry when it was over.
The 4* rating is for the writing rather than the story. As a story it is somewhat melancholic and not a great deal happens, nor has happened in the past which is really where the characters' stories lie, touching only fleetingly in the crowds in Sydney. However the story does have enough to keep you reading and is neatly structured to make it flow easily. It is in the words that this book excels, and the reason that I look out for Gail Jones' work. The writing is poetic and evocative, almost lyr...more
I must say that I bought this in Texas to quell some slight home-sickness (the front cover had a gorgeous photo of the SOH), and was pretty unconvinced by the first 50 pages or so. It did grab me more as the characters' back-stories were fleshed out, but, ultimately, quite a let-down. Dreamy, hazy, repetitive prose; unconvincing sense of timing. On the plus side, I liked how the themes of memory and chance and life as an unpredictable journey fed into the story.
I wasn't expecting to like this, as I had not been able to finish "Sorry", but I did. Five Bells is a poetic, almost dream-like book that is dense yet light at the same time. I enjoyed the writing but not the characters, apart from Pei Xing who I felt had the most interesting story and had a bit more humanity about her, an interest in the world and the people in it beyond her own circle and experiences. The Pei Xing snippets left me wanting more, but I was happy to say goodbye to the others.
This is a very beautiful and striking book. Jones introduced and fleshed-out four characters via contemplating, meandering internal dialogue and created an unusual, dreamy narrative that didn't go where I expected it to. This is quite a short novel, and it covers a lot of ground without coming to a solid narrative conclusion. The author's ability to inhabit all four very different characters, and to paint such different, realistic experiences of a single day and a single place, was striking. Her...more
There was some lyrical writing (which usually seduces me) here but I did not care about the characters and no plot seemed to be forthcoming so I gladly relinquished it after about 40 pages. The next book on my stack was You Deserve Nothing which is just humming along!
It's a trip. At first I thought it didn't finish well, but I think thats the trick of it. Jonh Olsen's painting of the same name used to be on the right hand side of AGNSW as you entered but its in another room now-thats alright I seek it out. I like the poem and the story within that, and there are all these different voices in this book too. Another rec. from Jenny A.
This is sublime, evocative writing. Several seemingly disparate characters carry the weight of their past, paths finally cross at the intersection of the loss of a child and the reunion of childhood sweethearts. This is a book about hidden depths, but it draws out the spatial architecture of Sydney so beautifully. Picked this book up on a whim and glad I did.
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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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May 01, 2012 12:02am