Rating: 
Summary: For all its' diversity, this is a single-minded story.
Review: Though he is verbally reticent,we soon become conversant with Kip,the intrepid young sapper who spends every waking hour increasing the safety of those around him.Does his rapport with the drained nurse go deeper than skin?His chosen "mission" is vastly undermined(no pun intended)by a catastrophic event he can neither comprehend nor forgive.Perhaps the badly burned English patient will suffer less in the end than the robust young idealist
Rating: 
Summary: A poetic page-turner, suspenseful and exotically romantic.
Review: Before beginning the text of _The English Patient_, I read the acknowledgements Michael Ondaatje had compiled: three pages printed in a miniscule font where he'd cited titles and authors of very specialized books on winds, bombs, desert studies by the Royal Geographical Society. I realized this book would teach as well as entertain. Ondaatje spent years researching this book before he linked all of the narrative images and ideas together; _The English Patient_ is a patchwork quilt of a story. If you don't like books that shift back and forth between plot lines and various characters' points of view, you might not be thrilled by _The English Patient_, but the writing is so fine and lyrical, the characters, setting and plot so painstakingly and lovingly textured, that if you don't read this book, you're missing out on a meaningful sensory and literary experience. <PR>
There is often a tendency to discount a novel's literary merit when it has been made into a film, and I've found that friends sometimes scoff at my suggestion to read this novel, but _The English Patient_ as a novel stands stoically on its own. The book also explores various characters much more deeply than does the film. The novel is Hana's story and because of this, there is also more of Kip's story. Ondaatje swathes the Count Almasy-Katharine Clifton affair in mystery; it is more mythical than Kip and Hana's romance, and thus more likely to attract a filmmaker's interest; there's more room for embellishment, for conjecture. <PR>
The landscapes of Italy and North Africa and the machinations of warring countries are given their fair share of the story as well. Ondaatje manages to make the long chapter on Kip's British bomb-defusing training as lyrical as the love affairs. _The English Patient_ is a book to be admired and envied, to be turned to again and again; each reading will seem like a discovery.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull, contrived and pretentious
Review: Without a doubt the worst book I've ever read. If you are looking for an ending, don't waste your time. Here's the story in a nut-shell: Nothing happens
Rating:
Summary: A great book !!!
Review: The English Patient is one of the best books I have read. The one aspect that I like most about this book is it's rather poetic prose. Even though the story moved rather slowly, the style of the prose kept me going. None of his lead charchter seem to have it altogether except Kip. Yet, we realize that the war has taken its toll on him as well. Kip was one of the best characters I read in a long time. The author proved to have a deep insight into the Eastern world. It is a pity that his chararcter was not portrayed well in the movie version. The movie makers had nearly three hours to make a film of this novel, yet missed some vital parts of the story. I would recommend this novel to anyone who has the patience and perseverance to stick with a slow moving novel. The rewards are great. I was left thinking about the novel for days after I finished the book. Read it on a lazy saturday when the kids are out playing and the spouse is out paying his weekly visit to the hardware store
Rating:
Summary: elliptically evocative, harrowing and moving
Review: I read The English Patient years before it was made into a movie, and i was stunned and recommended it to everyone; it is one of the most rewarding and beautiful books you'll ever read; to many it seems challenging at first to focus and understand what's going on--but it's absolutely worth it and it's VERY different from the movie (which did the best thing possible by not trying to imitate the style of the book)! This might be expected from an author who is a poet, who alludes rather than literaly describing. Ondatjee writes his characters in an often elliptical and detached way, but at the same time his writing is viscerally lyrical and piercingly evocative of a place and time of war and post-war devastation. Kip is perhaps the warmest and in some ways most fully fleshed (and my favorite) character, and through his voice Ondaatjee probes the issues of race, class, political and national allegiance in a very moving way without giving us any easy answers, or any answers really at all. (Kip and all his important scenes and issues were completely left out of both the movie and many were missing from the abridged cassette version)
For those who liked The English Patient, try John Berger's to The Wedding.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a revolution in literature!
Review:
"The English Patient" is a momentous turning point in English letters. Don't look at these statements in dismay, dear reader. "It is only a book," you're saying? Only a book... Only words...
"Words, Carravagio. They have a power." This quote sums up the main theme of the book. It is a homage to words. A tribute to the unarmed devastation words, books, literature can wreak in a person's life. They shatter worlds only to rebuild them in their own image.
Translation. Ondaatje uses this word a lot. What are books, but translations of life? And all those references to books; all those references to words... Ondaatje, himself, is a participant in this story. He is the ubiquitous magus, reinventing words, adorning them in the stardust of boundless imagination. By putting words through the dance steps of his own invention, he makes them stand out in a new light. Brilliant choreography, custom-made for his favourite ballerina -- language. The book screams of his love. The book reverberates with his powerful, yet tender presence.
There are other themes. War. The war waged by the outside world against our souls. Healing. The process of healing the wounds of our souls to discover our true identity under the thick scabs of scars. Foreign lands. Where familiarity stops being a buffer between us and our demons, but where, through facing those demons, we are free to shed the accoutrements of roots and expectations and to reinvent ourselves in our own image.
Yet through all this, there is an underlying melody of Time and Words. Sometimes enemies. Sometimes allies. Words in time. Words through time. Timeless words. Time is a river, carrying the barges of books with their immortal passengers -- words.
Perhaps not everyone will recognize the importance of this novel immediately. Perhaps our society must breathe through the realization of its impact. Amid artists who throw paint on the canvas of their works with reservation, Michael Ondaatje has the audacity and the bold strokes of an accomplished and confident Master. In the literary world full of brilliant followers, Ondaatje stands out as a profound innovator. It is inevitable, that in time "The English Patient" will become universally accepted as the little novel that shook the world.
Rating: 
Summary: well, maybe I should try it again
Review: It has been a long, long time since I didn't finish a book. The ramblings and looseness of plot did not hold my attention long enough to finish this book. After reading other reviews, maybe I should try it on a better day. After 200 pages, I gave up
Rating:
Summary: Read 'In the Skin of a Lion'
Review: Like many others, I came to the 'English Patient' having already seen the Minghella film. However, I was encouraged first to read the 'prequel','In the Skin of the Lion'. This book is probably more difficult to get to grips with than the 'English Patient' and does not contain the same beauty. However, it will give the reader valuable context about Hanna, her mother Clara, and Caravaggio. In particular, it resolves the puzzle as to how Caravaggio knew Hanna.
The film is a masterpiece of cinematography but some of the images are more startling still in the book. The first meeting between Kip and Hanna, for example, is far surpassed by the book and I am surprised Minghella didn't use it (maybe there wasn't a thunderstorm during filming!). In terms of how I rate the book, it is the only one to date that I immediately started to read again once I had finished. And despite my best endeavours, I am still reading it slowly and savouring every moment.
Rating:
Summary: As beautiful as it is uninteresting...
Review: As I started reading, I was taken in by Ondaatje's masterfully poetic prose, his gift to be able give any situation that mysterious, misty-eyed epic feel. I was infatuated with the novel, I read and savored a couple pages at a time, all the way through the wee hours of the night....But that passed. I found myself for some reason, after a while, lacking all gumption to pick up the book and open the pages. I realized the it was just plain uninteresting. What Ondaatje does in his narrative so well, magnifying the smallest detail into something beautiful and extraordinary, is entirely what the book itself is. Nothing but a small story, with small occurences, magnified to a thousand times. The only factor that makes the plot in any way engaging is Ondaatje's manipulation of time, somewhat reminiscent of Toni Morrison's "Beloved". Otherwise, I wouldn't have cared! Although most of the characters seem pretty "cookie-cutter" in their development (but they are developed, which is interesting coupled with Ondaatje's poetic style) the only real-seeming aspect, character-wise, of this novel is Kip's struggle for identity and, consequently, his relationship with Hana. The other characters seem too distant and contrived. Bottom line- it's a pleasure to read, if you can bring yourself to actually do it. Great quotes, though! "If I gave you my life, you would drop it. Wouldn't you?"
Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully non-linear story
Review: If you need a linear story line, then this book isn't for you. Like a review said, "THE ENGLISH PATIENT requires English patience." But for those who have the attention span, it comes out as one of the best works of literature in this century.
It's a beautifully written book, filled with vivid discriptions and lovely backgrounds. But the ending leaves something to be desired. I found that the part where Caravaggio shows interest in the patient's past (and on) hurried and lacking depth. The concept that Caravaggio knew anything at all about the patient didn't show up until over half the book was finished. And then the whole affair was speedily finished within a few pages. It seemed as though the author treated the count and Katherine's affair like a newspaper that you read only a few lines and throw away.
But beyond this, the book comes out as an over all triumph.
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