Rating: 
Summary: Great Potential
Review: The plot of the story had a great potential. It portrays four people coming from different walks of life and experiences during WW11. Each character has an intriguing and sad story that has altered his or hers life for ever. Unfortunately, the author spends so much time proving to his readers his proficiency in the English language that the book looses its charm after few chapters. The most influential writers and philosophers (of present and past) make their writing unforgettable not by using the longest and at times inappropriate words but by eloquently putting them together.
Rating: 
Summary: Both the novel and the movie works in its own way
Review: To be absolutely honest, I read "The English Patient" about two years before the film came out and swept the awards. Had I not read the book, I would have liked the movie just the same (after all, it is a pretty awesome movie). Both the book and the movie enhances and deepens the meaning of the other, in a way. Michael Ondaatje's prose is vague and harrowing, yet when all becomes clear, the words are like deep gashes on clear glass. It does not seem to have much of a plot, but it's the way he adds emotion, reason, and consequence to it that makes it so gripping. The movie is this poetry on screen, but it simplifies the characters and the plot in order to get through to us (if it were exactly the same as the book, we'd probably have no idea what they were talking about), and it works. Both work brilliantly in its own way, but my personal preference would be the book--its raw emotionalism and power always strikes me.
Rating:
Summary: A Moving, Deep Novel
Review: Michael Ondaatje has the touch. Like a painter, he brushes the landscape of war-ravished scenes into our mind. He dabs into his watercolors and paints such unforgetable characters as Hana and Carravaggio and the kipper--and, with a truly genius stroke of person, the Patient himself. A masterful work.
Rating:
Summary: A book for patient readers
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time, even though I found it frustrating the first time through. I kept wondering "where are we now? what's going on?" and re-reading passages to pick up the thread of the plot. The second time through, with a grasp of where the book was headed, I was able to enjoy the sheer beauty of the book's mood and atmosphere. I would advise first time readers to savor the book, and not worry about the sense of drifting among plot lines - the book will take you with it. I have noticed in conversations with people about "The English Patient" that there are those who like the book, and those who like the movie. The movie has a much more traditional narrative flow. It took two readings for me to understand that the book has to be read like poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: English Patient
Review: If I can give one bit of advice (which alas is utterly too late) it would be: read the book before you see the movie. I believe you will get so much more out of it. I do not believe I liked this book as much as I could have because I went into it with such impossibly high expectations. The English Patient is one of my all time favorite movies and I have seen it several times. I bought the book about the same time the movie came out (late 1996) but never read it. I finally picked it up during this year's flu season... and expected to be carried right into the same story that I loved so well. It is very very difficult to shake the images you have been given by a movie. I believe I would have enjoyed the book much more had I been able to draw pictures with my own imagination first while reading this book, then later filled out the picture with the movie. Who knows, perhaps I would not have been as enamored with the movie then, although I doubt it - the English Patient as a movie was truly visual poetry.
Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorites!
Review: I have to admit that this book was slow to start. I actually put it down for about 4 months after I read the first 20 pages. Once I picked it up again and began reading the story line really took off. I think it offers something for everyone; spies, romance and geography. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: I appreciate the book much more now.
Review: I first bought this book a couple of months after I first saw the movie. I started to read it and I couldn't get more than half way through it. I was confused on where the story was and the only thing that guided me is the knowledge I had from the movie. A few years later, a few really enjoyable English courses, and a better appreciation for literature I decided to give it another try. I was able to follow the way he wrote little moments and started to understand the connections. It was really exciting and I started to get in his style. I read it very quickly, because it is easy to get stuck in his details and images. I did go back and read it again slowly. I wasn't worried about understanding the plot, and I was able to enjoy the images and details. One must read in the style that he writes in order to enjoy the book. I like the difference between the book and the movie. It's not gripping, but it is very good.
Rating: 
Summary: In The Minus
Review: This book does not pose any questions I care to have answered. Period
Rating:
Summary: Oh, For Goodness Sake!
Review: It's quite obvious from the tone of the book that the only character this author cares about is himself! Soooo tedious that every time I sat down to read, I found myself thinking about watering my tomato plants, which would have been a LOT more interesting. I could write more, but that would just give this book free advertising, which is something I DEFINITELY DON'T want to do.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful prose
Review: I think what I appreicate most about Ondaatje's prose is that it manages to capture a sense of immediacy and the present, making details sharp, vivid and immediate. These images remain in me after I close the book, like an afterglow. For example, one of the closing images is that of Hana dislodging a glass, and Kirpal's left hand swoops down and catches a dropped fork from the fingers of his daughter. Even though the characters have long parted and moved on with their lives, the connection of these two separate actions next to each other brings an intimacy. I also found myself re-reading the sections about Katherine, wanting to soak myself in the passion of their love.
|
