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Summary: Human Geography
Review: Many have said they are disappointed with the book, but have hinted the writing is far subtler than in earlier books. That's exactly it. While there are a few pages of less-than-stellar prose (for a 300-page book, it is extremely tight), Ondaatje has pulled off some amazing things here. Foremost is his ability to link the landscape with the human. From diamond and plumbago mines to the ruins of palaces to the inscription filled caves that once housed ascetic monks, the author lets the geography and conflict of Sri Lanka reveal the geography and conflict of being. And just as the characters hoard individual inscriptions (Warning: WHEN IT RAINS, THESE STEPS ARE BEAUTIFUL or more brutually "In diagnosing a vascular injury, a high index of suspicion is necesary."), you'll come across sentences, paragraphs, pages you'll want to commit to memory. Finally, the experience of discovery, the delving and decryption involved in reading the book is so, well, lovingly mirrored in the character's investigations (of self, memory, identity) that you read with the sense that you are doing something important, that you are ferreting out a deep and wonderful secret about the human experience. That you, like the artists and doctors in the story, are revealing pain only to heal it, figuring the dead only to honor and remember them. Read, I implore you, this wonderful, horrible, beautiful book.
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Summary: Wonderful Ondaatje-characters...
Review: I love Ondaatje's use of words and have always admired his poetry. What has happened in his novels, that I believe reaches perfection in Anil's Ghost, is his ability to use plot construction, short, descriptive movements of a place and setting in time, to create a poetic work. In this book there is less reliance on the poetic words and more reliance on movement of time and space and the feelings of the characters. Each section of the book becomes a line of poetry that dips, soars and rushes along. Another attraction of Ondaatje that was present in Skin of the Lion and The English Patient and very much a part of Anil's Ghost is his character creation via flashback and the character's subsequent interaction with each other. No other author creates this push/pull terseness and angst-ridden interaction between characters. It is difficult to describe but very much a large part of why I enjoy Ondaatje's works so much.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, but still better than average
Review: I've been a fan of Ondaatje since the late 1970s, and am always eager for his latest work, prose or poetry. I couldn't wait to read this one, set as it is in his homeland. I'm very sad to have to say that I found the book somewhat disappointing. It seems to be lacking the beautifully poetic language that has been a hallmark of his novels since Coming Through Slaughter. It could be that the subject matter is too personal and too horrible to beautify in that way. Having said that, though, the book is still excellently written, and very evocative of the chaos of the Sri Lankan situation, both from the inside and the outside points of view. Anil is the perfect surrogate for the reader who might think s/he knows something about the condition, but is really completely outside it. It is still a better than average novel by quite a bit. This might not be your best introduction to Ondaatje's work, but it is certainly an enriching read.
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Summary: Suspense and Tragedy Written with Elegance
Review: The story of forensic anthropologist Anil Tissera is one that Ondaatje drapes in mystery. As can be expected from any who have read his previous works, the description and flashbacks are both vivid and prolificly written. This novel was more accessable than its famous predecessor, The English Patient: there are fewer secret lives and betrayals, but more importantly, nearly all the characters are on the same linear path. Anil Tissera (Sri Lankan born) is a woman who has been educated in England and the United States in the field of forensic anthropology. She has become immersed in the application of her schooling to the arena of Civil Rights violations. So when a position is needed in the country of Sri Lanka, she enters a world recovering from and on the brink of insurrection, guerrilla warfare and government sponsored killings. This is where the majority of the novel takes place. The focus of her investigation is on a skeleton nicknamed 'Sailor'. Sailor has been hidden among other more ancient remains in a restricted park area that government officials would have access to. Anil is treading on thin ice once she begins to discover the dark secrets surrounding Sailor. However, some of this compelling story is weighed down by lengthy character exploration and remembrances of the past. Suspicion about Sarath, her gov't appointed partner, and his brother Gamini kept my interest well occupied. Ondaatje succeeds in keeping even the slowest part of the novel well written (and hence acceptable). His technique is an approach that seems to emphasize giving all of his character's a past complete with secrets, pain and pleasure. This is good in the long run, but at times one wants a return to the main story. Ondaatje's humor is first-rate and most will catch themselves laughing more than once. The atmosphere he creates is very enthralling. Anyone interested in drama, mystery, civil rights or international affairs will enjoy this book, making its base very wide in my opinion. I could not help but compare Anil to Dana Scully from the X-Files, which seemed silly at first glance until I realized (and truly appreciated) that what Ondaatje has written about in Sri Lanka, though fiction, is based on truth. This realization made the novel more frightening much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Bo-ring
Review: I couldn't wait to get this book. I was in Sri Lanka in '88-'89, the peak of the JVP vs government vs LTTE war that serves as backdrop for the book. And at times he really captures the images and moods perfectly. But there's too little Sri Lanka and too much of Anil's (a girl with a boy's name) uninteresting ruminations about her past. Gamini is a little more interesting, but I kept wanting to just get on with the story already. Not a "thriller", not much suspense or mystery or action. I never got interested in "Sailor" or understood why this one skeleton was a big deal. What little action there is happens blandly. Bo-ring. It reminded me for some reason of John Le Carre's "A Perfect Spy" (which I read while at an abandoned resort in Sril Lanka), another tedious, boring and disappointing book about what should be an exciting topic. In both books we get lots of dreamy reflection and an ugly but strangely anticlimatic ending
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Summary: Ondaatje is an artist
Review: This is a really great book. However, those looking for a repeat of The English Patient may be disappointed. While the writing style is very similar (Ondaatje's poetic descriptions) the organization is much clearer and easier to follow. It isn't until 2/3 of the way into the book that he begins to mix events around. But it works! The characters are as fascinating as those we know from The English Patient, but the plot is far more interesting, and his descriptions near sublime. This book is poetic, disturbing and uplifting all at the same time. One can imagine that this is a topic that is closer to the heart of the author, but no matter what, it comes through as a thoughtful, inspired work of art.
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Summary: Ondaatje trumps The English Patient
Review: Crafted with complex characterizations, this is Michael Ondaatje's first novel since The English Patient fetched fame and Hollywood acclaim. Now living in Toronto, he again builds a labyrinthine plot around memorable characters that this time bestir our cranial amygdalas. Anil Tissera, a forensic anthropologist from USA alights in Sri Lanka, formerly called Ceylon. Her mission from the States is to investigate alleged human rights violations. Originally raised in Ceylon's culture, she procures her first name from her brother in return for favors that included a sexual one. She refuses to feminize her name to its female version Anile. People killed in Sri Lanka's wars are not her concern. Tortures and murders are. Her reluctant Sri Lankan accomplice Sarath Diyasena cautions it is dangerous to spell out the truth concerning corpses in written reports to authorities. A dubious assistant, he will enact an off-center role in Anil's quest for justice. So will two special skeletons. Through unique circumstances these can help Anil prove widespread cases of ethnic torture. In 1993 forces assassinated Sri Lanka's President Premadasa who is thinly disguised in the novel. This book is less about politics than gross humanity. To identify one skeleton they name Sailor, Anil and Sarath hire the somewhat unsavoury Ananda. His name is that of a disciple of Buddha's. Ananda's skill stems from ancient arts. He is to construct an image of Sailor's face -- but he has his own therapeutic agenda. Ondaatje unfolds Anil's past life and romances in the States, while unveiling Sri Lanka's people, terrain and culture. It leads to a compelling climax as Anil prepares to convince her Sri Lanka peers of shocking truths.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful and original. Superb Ending
Review: This is the third book of Ondaatje's I've read, so by now some of the images and metaphors used are no longer strikingly original but rather familiar...readers of "The English Patient" or "The Skin of a Lion" will recognize more than a few images and metaphors. However, the way in which one of the central themes of the novel, the civil war itself, is dealt with; such that we see the effect on various characters without looking much into the actual nature of the war or its politics was unique. The novel is definitely much more tightly written than some previous works of Ondaatje. Unfortunately, there were times I felt this book could still be tightened up some more...for instance there is a scene early in the novel where a security officer is attacked. I also thought this book was less lyrical and poetic than previous works. The ending of this book is one of the strongest I've ever read for any book and is brilliant. Without giving away the ending, I think that some readers found the ending a bit trite, but taken in the context ofthe novel and the way this topic is usually broached in other novels and media, Ondaatje's ending is masterful.
Rating: 
Summary: Not His Best Work To Date
Review: Both the English Patient and In The Skin Of A Lion are two of my favorite books. I agree with the reviewer who said Anil is an underdeveloped character. The poetic prose that usually works so well in his books keeps you lost in this one, as the reader is not sure if some of the events are actually happening. Perhaps murder mysteries are not his forte. I look forward to his next effort and hope he can capture me with the same wonderfully developed characters of his past novels.
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Summary: Ondaatje in Sri Lanka, again
Review: First off, Michael Ondaatje is a writer who will be remembered very kindly for a long time. This book I had been looking forward to for seven years, and so naturally I was a bit let down when it actually arrived. The characters here are so delicately drawn, and so delicately enacted, that I somehow lost interest in them inside the chaos and clatter of civil war. This seemed to be a fairly conventional novel, for Ondaatje anyway. And that was a surprise, too, because Ondaatje's novels have usually been such out-and-out effrontaries. I felt that the prose was not up to his usual bar, but it wasn't as if the prose was in any way failing, it just didn't attempt to be as in-your-face poetic as in Ondaatje's earlier novels. Maybe it was just that pure poetry I missed. The writing here is more subtle than usual. Halfway through the book I went out and bought The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, just to remind myself of what I'd been after, those Ondaatje lines that stop you cold. I've been to Sri Lanka, and obviously Ondaatje knows the country very well, but I did not understand how the war between Hindus and Buddhists could be described so well but at the same time so inadequately. I did not feel as if the writer had a strong insight into either of the two religions. At the same time, it's hard to separate tastes from criticm, and maybe Ondaatje doesn't see it as a religous war. Whatever, Micheal Ondaatje is bizarrely talented writer who engages the world, and the reader, and who challenges everything in his approach. Any book he writes is worth reading twice slowly.
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