Five Bells (2011)

I enjoyed her excellent prose and superb, precise descriptions. Initially I thought the language very pedantic and pretentious, but then I started to appreciate her accurate vivid descriptions.
She cleverly wove her diverse characters and their lives to intersect at Sydney’s quayside. All her characters seemed alive, very real, and believable.
I found many growing up memories were stirred for me.
Her thorough research, spending time in China and Ireland, is clearly apparent.
An excellent book.
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Didn't quite work for me, for no real reason. It's beautifully written, but little happens, and I wasn't in the mood for that today. Also, James made me impatient, and I felt that Ellie and Catherine were really too similar to each other. Maybe the real problem is that I am also reading Assassin's Apprentice and Derby Day, and those books are more fun and more what I feel like reading right now. I will definitely give this one another try in a few months, to see if it really is just about my mood. ( )

Didn't quite work for me, for no real reason. It's beautifully written, but little happens, and I wasn't in the mood for that today. Also, James made me impatient, and I felt that Ellie and Catherine were really too similar to each other. Maybe the real problem is that I am also reading Assassin's Apprentice and Derby Day, and those books are more fun and more what I feel like reading right now. I will definitely give this one another try in a few months, to see if it really is just about my mood. ( )

Beautiful, buoyant prose but the lack of dialogue eventually led me to conclude that I couldn't engage.

This novel presents four individuals each grappling with difficulties from their pasts, whose lives briefly intersect on a Saturday on Circular Quay in Sidney. James and Ellie had been lovers as teenagers, and they are meeting again after many years apart. Catherine, an Irish immigrant, is struggling over the death of her brother. Pei is a Chinese immigrant, a victim of the Cultural Revolution who is coming to terms with her former tormentor. The fifth "bell" is a young girl who goes missing. The book is poetically written--I liked for example that as each character was introduced on the Quay and the point of view shifted, there was a different description of the Opera House, each entirely distinct in mood and tone from previous descriptions. The plot, however, moves at a glacial pace, and it took me a very long time to read this short book. Overall, this was not a memorable read for me.

2 1/2 stars ( )