Rating: 
Summary: An island of love in a sea of hell
Review: The English Patient is a story about love, friendships, war and how all of these intertwine to become a novel about four lives and how they are entangled in ways the reader would have never thought. The setting of the desert and the italian villa in the time of world war 1 brings A fictional love story into a historical time period and captivates the reader. We want the english patient to continue with his story so we learn more of Katharine. We want the bombs dismantled because in a way Kip's only other passion excluding the bombs is Hana and her body, soul, her being as a whole. We want to be told of the curve in Katharine's neck and The episodes in the tent. We need to be told how to read it and when to slow down. We need to hear what Kip says when hearing of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. These are life lessons that need to be learned. I loved this book for the lessons it taught me and the romantic tales of woe that captivated my imagination. I wanted to be in Hana's place or even Kip's place. I want to be playing hide and seek in the library and I want to hit my knees from the pain that just seperated my soul. This was a great book, the only part you could play with is Katharine. She has no voice and may need one. We feel a male opinion of her and not her opinion of herself or the english patient. The other thing I had to say was that caravaggio even though he was not really developed as deeply, he played an important role and that was an interesting way to portay a character. Give him no hands and just about as much personality and then give him the most important role. Finding out who the English Patient really is. Interesting.
Rating:
Summary: A society of explorers.
Review: When a young nurse and a maimed thief from Canada, a bomb sapper from India and a half dead man from the Libyan desert --probably a Hungarian-- gathered in a villa in Tuscany, Italy, it was not due to a joke of geography. It was mostly the cruelty of a war of nations, whose heads of state wanted to change the border lines among nations. That was the beginning of the memories by a man who mapped the desert and learnt to hate nations. Although desert-wise he had put the heart into the wrong place. Eventually he lost his identity and was told us as "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje's namesake novel (1992). If not the geography let's respect at least the men who made and loved it! (Excerpt of "In Situ - A society of explorers" as published by me on Oct.16, 2000 at http://www.dmlr.org/top4.htm).
Rating: 
Summary: A Marvelous Book, in which, Nothing Happens
Review: The cover copy of my version of "The English Patient" indicates that the book within is "A rare and spellbinding web of dreams." Even though I'm not sure what that means, strangely, I agree. Ondaatje's language is lyrical enough to transport one to his dream world, a world of half-glimpsed comprehension, passion and sensuality. His descriptions of the world he has created are certainly dream-like; when the English Patient first emerges from the wrecked plane, he is afire, his headed sporting "antlers of flame". From that moment, I belonged to Ondaatje. Narrative is an important part of a novel. But if you like yours linear, you will be disappointed here. "The English Patient" flashes backwards and back to the present, rarely giving one warning or even a way to tell where we are, chronologically. It is a quilt of a book, much like the patient's copy of Herodotus' "The Histories", which has been woven from the original text and additional maps, notes & drawings. It is at once what it appears to be and something different, something organic, alive and changing with us as we read it. Most of the characters are fascinating. Caravaggio, the thumbless thief, who, naked, once stole a photograph of himself from the woman who took it. Kip, the Sikh "sapper", or demolitions expert, who spends his days communing with the bombs that surround their villa. Hana, the nurse, who finds solace and support in books, to the point of rebuilding a portion of the staircase by nailing heavy books in place (If that isn't an incredible metaphor, I don't know what is). Then there is the patient himself, burnt black, quietly awaiting death and reflecting on its nature. For much of the novel, we don't know who he is, except a reminder of death and betrayal. This is barely his story at all; he is merely a catalyst. Without him, we have the idea that the other three would never have come together,would never have discovered their identities. For that's what this book is, an examination of the nature of identity. Who are we, when the lights are out? Is it only the presence of other people that makes us who we are? Michael Ondaatje isn't telling, rather, he leaves it up to us.
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Summary: The Sublime Decline of Western Civ
Review: This is a moving novel that traces the collapse of Western civilization -- and the imperialism which underwrote it -- in a number of characters following the end of WWII. I came to this novel only long after seeing Minghella's film version of it -- the few comments I will make here are aimed at encouraging others who have seen the film to read the novel as well. I usually wouldn't make a point of chastising a film to celebrate the text from which it was adapted -- but in this case, I think that the changes Minghella made are indicative of a deep-seeded colonial sentimentality in the unitedstatesian, or at least Hollywood, imaginary. In other words, I will not critique the adaptation in order to uphold some concept of the pure original text, but rather to compare them in order to highlight the ways the film manages to sidestep the more challenging aspects of the novel. Readers may be surprised to find that the novel, unlike the film, is not focused on the character of Count Almasy to the expense of the others. The Count's character is important -- especially since only he, the apparent Nazi agent, represents the ideal of a European renaissance man, someone who whose grasp of history, language and art approaches the universal. In the novel, the attractive aspects of his character are clearly linked to European colonialism and to fascism -- the problem posed by his character is just this, how he simultaneously embodies the highest values of European renaissance and Enlightenment, the chauvinism of the European imperial mindset and also, by his association with the Nazis, the darker values of European "humanism." By choosing to transform this character into a romantic hero -- a la T E Lawrence -- the film not only missed out on what is most interesting about Almasy's character, but transformed him into a figure of nostalgia for the "exciting times" of European colonial rule. In contrast, the novel compels readers to think far more critically about the ability of Europeans to legitimate the rule of colonialism in the name of Western human values. Similarly, the character of Kip, the sikh Sapper, is not just a background figure in the novel as he is in the film. Rather, he represents a person who has been colonized by the West, but whose relation to Western civ is fully ambivalent. He not only loves the sublime frescos of Italy, but knows how to distinguish them from the culture of Europe in the wake of WWII. He loves European art, but is not dazzled by it. Finally, perhaps most interesting are the many, many figures of ruin in the novel -- the body of the Count, most obviously, but also the landscapes in which the novel takes place -- the Italian villa, or even the rock drawings of Libya. As ruins, all these figures challenge one's ability to claim greatness. Ruins always challenge the one who looks upon them -- as if to say, "I once was grand but now am no longer -- beware your own sense of greatness." This is what the landscape of this novel suggests over an over again -- but with a twist: so much of this landscape -- the landscape of Western civ -- is also boobytrapped. Thus, it not only suggests a comparison with a present moment of poverty, but also precariousness and danger. Any one of these icons of Western civ -- the statuary, the piano, the frescos, the monuments -- could explode at a moment's notice. Western civ, for all its beauty, never appeared so fragile! The novel succeeds in critiquing the pretensions of Western civilization then, but he also renders its decline into the Sublime. What lovely ambivalence! What a welcome departure from colonial sentimentalism! Is this the book that Minghella read?
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Summary: Thoughts on Love
Review: With wonderful characters, Ondaatje explores the varieties of love. The book has a gentle, almost contemplative feel. I found myself identifying with different aspects of the characters, and saw people I know in some others.
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Summary: ALL PEEPERS!
Review: It's a good movie in satisfying those who PEEP! As the name, the English Patient, silently implies, the man with the face in complete distortion is "sick" not only due to the serious air-crash burn but also to the post-colonialism, aremed intrusion into others' territory as well as into others' marriage. That is, the nameless patient is quite sick both physically and mentally. He is typical of a peeper, coveting after other country's land, superficially probing the cultural heritages, the wall paintings, and stealthily following Katharine Clifton to the market at the unforgiven beginning. However, he is not the only one peeper, but there are three others in the book. Hana, a spiritual peeper to some extent, who nurses the patient from bodily pains on the surface by her occupation, and also actually plays both a mother's and a psychologist's roles. She feeds him, and reads him stories, through which they get acquainted with each other step by step and in this way they cure each others' latent vanity in life. Then, Caravaggio, the mained thief, a government spy, not to mention, is absolutely a peeper in identity and between the English patient and Hana. And because of Caravaggio's incessant quests for truth, the patient reveals everything, which liberates himself and Caravaggio. Namely, they both are each other's doctors. At last, the wary sapper, Kip, another peeper, eventually sweeps away Hana's empty spirits by leading her to the ceiling paintings, and becomes Hana's doctor. To sum up, they seemingly abnormally spy out others' secrets, but in the long run they become each other's doctors, curing each other. Namely, the four characters are seemingly hostile in their different nationalities during the war, but alternatively interdependent, which implies the nature of post-colonialism. A good book.
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Summary: Poetic and Hallow
Review: Desipte Minghella's focus on the romance of the English patient, this book is not a mere tale of doomed love (presented as gorgeous as possible however on the big screen, thus leading most of us astray). Ondaatje intended a lurid story of identities, so many different identities of utterly uncrossable lives that come fusing into one rhapsody. This tune is so soulful and the rapport between the 4 main undertones is truly amazing. Yes, in a way, these undertones lose their distinctions as they are weaved in the burned patient's story in the deserted villa on the Italian front, during WWII Nazi's retreat. Count Almasy is the burned patient--faceless and nameless, for whom the emotionally scarred nurse Hana stays behind. He recalls details w/ such alacrity and recite senses w/ such keenness, the young Canadian nurse immediately finds herself enamored with this "ghost". Hana herself lost her father in the war, what she holds as protection against the acidity of warfare remains the English patient, who remembers much yet refuses to accept any. Shortly after, joining them is a maimed thief, Caravaggio, an enigma during the war working as a spy for the allies. He is in possession of one piece of clue to the English patient's identity, and he is desperate enough for that identity b/c much of his own remaining dignity and hope have long intertwined with the burned man's past. Last of all, the supposedly strongest vibe in the blues tune creeps warily into the villa--Kip, a Sikh sapper with Ondaatje's alienation in the white man's world all over his skin. The romance between Kip and Hana seems inevitable, but their youthful affection has none of the realistic ownership overwhelmingly expressed between Almasy and his lover, Katherine Clifton, a married woman that took his face away from him. Ownership, more than anything else, keeps Almasy's desert romance alive, the blinding flame of its passion and its ignorance during rapid colonization. Almasy, a linguist and explorer, sees the world as one preserved mural; in some way, he sees love the same way--as pristine as the uncharted desert of North Africa. Love may have long been conquered as nomads roamed the desert, its devious curves remain charted and mapped and grasped. He seeks out the shortcuts and wakes his proud soul with a possessive force. What dooms his love? His sense of the world, or rather his lack of it? Love is multifaceted, and the forbidden territory is divided, much like the "civilized" world. Civilization has instigated much progress and much enlightenment. But to these 4 shattered souls, humanity is nothing but enlightened by the tremendous darkness of the human mind. The mind that is so eager to conquer and to suppress and to differentiate. The primal alienation comes from Kip, and as he befriends a man who may have compromised the lives of allied soldiers for a simple promise, he himself fades away into the night with the woman he knows he can never have. Caravaggio's injury of the hands symbolize humanity crippled by warfare, and as he even grows weary of morphine, as much as Truth, he comes to see Almasy's decisions judgments made not for any country, but overlooking all nationhood. Poet writer Michael Ondaatje deserves all the recognition this book has brought him. There has rarely been such tender force behind a modern writer's pen-nonchalant on the surface, but pounding at the core of truth. And truly, seldom have I been so moved and touched by plain words weaved together with naivety, yet such rhythm! This is not a novel of anguish, or of anti-war sentimentalities; it simply records lives, so many different lives existing in parallel universes of humanity, looking over for intersections that never come.
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Summary: One you cannot set aside
Review: I have not seen the film. This is one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading. I laid aside the "Who done its" as I could not put it down. I usually read several books at a time. It appears the author was indeed in these places at these times. I could feel with the subjects. I highly recommend it to those who love literature as well as good detective stories. Thank you. HJS Clark
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Summary: With thee in the desert, with thee in the thirst
Review: Ondaatje's book is sheer poetry. Though the prose tends to get heavy and super-serious, the way he fleshes out the characters is superb. His scarce use of punctuation other than periods contributes to his highly personal style of writing. However, aside from Ondaatje's writing style, the plot is the heart of the novel. Some compare it to Anna Karenina, but it is a completely different tale, not just a tale of an adulterous affair. It is a tale of love against all odds, the ultimate tale of chivalry and sacrifice. This novel testifies to the power that love can hold, and how two people can shut out the world even if it's in the midst of the worst of wars, become traitors even to the good, and see only each other. It is a tragedy, a love story, a shock, and a poem at the same time. Unbelievable!
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Summary: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Review: A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, SUSPENSEFUL ROMANCE NOVEL! After reading The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, a booker-prize winning novel, you will finish the last chapter with a sense of triumph and passion for life. Written in 1992, this story takes place during World War II. A burned man, the English patient, finds refuge in an Italian villa where a compassionate nurse, Hanna, tends to his dying wishes. Through all of the scars and wounds readers will discover the lives of four mysterious people as they unravel and share the dangerous secrets of the past. Controlled by morphine, the English tells of his love and loss of his friends wife Katherine. We also learn that Hanna, the nurse, is discovering her own love, Kip. Clifton soon hears of his wife's, Katherine's, torrid love affair with the English patient. It baffles me to think that a more beautifully written novel of romance and betrayal could exist. There is, however, a movie that does serve it justice, The English Patient. Though I do recommend the movie, which won nine Academy awards, I do wish you'd read the book first. This book is for the romantics and those looking for a challenge. The characters being and details of their life are only brought about between the lines. This novel takes you through a series of lives, places , and event which are in no real chronological order. The outcome of events is revealed through such imagery and sometimes lack ther of, "They would carry a severed arm down a hall, or swab at blood that never stopped, as if the wound were a well, and they began to believe in nothing, trusted nothing." or "Blood. Tear. He feels everything is missing from his body, feels he contains smoke." The story also provides images in the desert and in the villa with life like qualities. The story also gives insight into the culture and lifestyles of the characters in that time period. An example of the difference in culture portrayed in the book was when one character had his thumbs removed as a punishment for commiting adultery. There are a few setbacks such as the confusing order of events. The story jumps from place to place and period to period. Overall, I strongly recommend this book for the romantic in all of us.
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