The English Patient

Rating:
Summary: Yet another dull "literary" novel...
Review: The English Patient lacked all but one of the characterics that make for a truely great novel. It's characters were lackluster and one dimensional, it's plot was missing, it's pace was slow and plodding, and it had no ending. It did have some lovely prose. For me, lovely prose just isn't enough.

Rating:
Summary: Read the summary
Review: I thought this was going to be a great book to read but as I started it ,I was greatly disappointed because it is extremely boring. The author has added in so much unnecessary detail and boring descriptions as well as characters of no significance. However to be fair, the book starts picking up pace towards the middle with the descriptions of the desert trips that I really enjoyed. Parts of the plot are loosely connected for instance the change of Hanna's feelings from her love to the English Patient to the sapper. Also the attitude of the sapper after the Hiroshema bomb. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: The most moving love story I have read in many years
Review: The novel is so beautiful that you cannot put it down, although you know in advance that there is going to be no happy end. Simultaneously, you suffer because you are approaching the end, and wish it were to continue indefinitely. A great novel!

Rating:
Summary: Multiple story lines, beautiful language
Review: Ondaatje's book is complex, each character is richly drawn. The language is beautiful. A couple of times I got lost in the descriptions, most notably in the scenes in the cave (I would have rated the book a 10, but I had to see the movie before I knew if she died or not...couldn't tell from the book, and I read that passage several times before I gave up). If you likes stories to fall "neatly into place" and be more-or-less chronological, don't read this book. If, however, you like interwoven plots and artfully crafted text, this is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Don't comment on what you lack experience in
Review: Firstly, all the individuals who have read this book solely on the basis of seeing the movie should shut up. Any expectations created solely by watching the film are idiotic; don't use one genre to base the worth of another genre. Anyone who criticises Ondaatje's structuring of the plot obviously hasn't read as many novels of intellectual worth as they think! Granted, this is not exactly one of my most cherished novels. The romance elements in the book, and in the movie, are at times "suspect" in their attempt at realism. However, the beautiful and poetic prose is a highlight. Admiring the style is justification enough to buy this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book
Review: There are three books I keep by my bed to dip into on occasion before going to sleep: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, and The English Patient by Ondaatje. I can read segments of these again and again because with each reading I find something new at an even deeper level. The movie version of the English patient, while visually evocative, was untimately unsatisfying because it took the easy way out and focused on only one of the many emotional relationships explored in the book. And if I could read the original Russian I am sure that I would find the same extraordinary use of language in War and Peace and the Master and Margarita that I find in The English Patient, which is masterpiece of evocative prose - indeed rivaling the best of poetry. This book is not for everyone. You need to work at reading it, savor it, return to it often, suspend the need for instant understanding, and be willing to think.

Rating:
Summary: Ondaatje's novel is one of true poetic beauty
Review: Like many others, I too first saw the film before reading the book - but I found it made little difference on the impact of Ondaatje's poetic proze style and his magnificently detailed descriptions of the in- and outsides of the characters and landscapes, which made this the best book I have read in a very long time. What made this book so special to me was that the answer to the question: "Could we ever have forgiven Almásy had he not worked for the Germans to be able to pick up K. from the cave?" was a wholehearted "No!" People who do not love this book cannot possibly know romance, love & the all-consuming fire of the heart. Or they just don't like poetry, in which case they cannot possibly know romance, etc.

Rating:
Summary: What a stupid book
Review: I didn't get this book, but I tried to keep reading. I am an avid reader, but I finally had to quit wasting my time. I couldn't identify with any of the characters (thank God). I can't recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Do yourself a favor--use mind altering drugs to prepare
Review: Strange and boring. Difficult. Rambling. At the end, you will have decided it wasn't worth the effort. Dry, tasteless, cheerless. If you want to give it a try--acquire it at the library. (That way you won't feel bad when you quit after a hundred pages.) The movie--one of the most beautifully photographed awful films of all time. Like a really bad Lawrence of Arabia. Best advice: pass on anything labeled "The English Patient."

Rating:
Summary: At last a great American novel...
Review: This book and film hardly need praising, and yet they deserve it more than any other I've experienced in a decade. Ondaatje truly brings his poetry to the novel and Anthony Minghella translates it to the screen. It's a deeply philosophical novel and film that deals with issues of reality and self an lifts them into a larger sense of Self. It moves like no other I've read since Faulkner or E. M. Forester. Thanks to this India born Canadian for bringing us greatness.