Rating: 
Summary: Meeting a Deadline and Failing the Reader
Review: The three-star rating is indicative of my frustration in thoroughy enjoying a well-written novel with rich characterization, imagery and suspense that builds to a climax but fails to deliver. I suspect that Ondaatje had a deadline to meet and therefore threw the reader into an abrupt end missing an opportunity to deliver another Ondaatje classic. Unfortunate!
Rating: 
Summary: Digging for one's roots
Review: In his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje used war as the background for personal loss. In Anil's Ghost, Ondaatje returns to the theme, with as much effectiveness.
It is the story of Anil Tissera, a native Sri Lankan, returns to her homeland 15 years after she left it as a young woman of 18. A forensic anthropologist and a war veteran, she is a part of an international human rights fact-finding mission searching for proof of goverment supported mass murders. However, she is also searching for herself and the web of personal insecurities inside her is as dense as the web of political intrigue around her.
It is also the story of brothers Sarath and Gamini Diyasena. As a politically connected archaeologist working with Anil, Sarath treads the thin line between unearthing evidence of mass murder and becoming a victim himself. As a doctor in a war torn hospital, Gamini treads the even thinner line between sanity and insanity as he looks at the dead bodies of the only woman he loved and the man who married her.
Finally, it is the story of 'loss' itself. At an individual level, every character in the novel deals with the loss of loved ones, the loss of a life once dreamt of and, often, the loss of a reason to live itself. At a collective level, an entire society deals with the loss of self respect, the loss of the ability to be shocked itself.
A finely balanced work of prose, the novel is a worthy follow up for The English Patient. Read it once, and you will be touched. Read it twice, and you will be surprised at the layers of meaning that open up to you.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic
Review: Although I was blown away by "The English Patient," I feel that "Anil's Ghost" is more cohesive and works better as a novel. Still, "Anil's Ghost" is not a straightforward and linear book, so it probably won't appeal to readers who like simpler, plot-oriented fare. Ondaatje is also a poet and has an amazing facility with language and emotional nuance. The book's structure is often associative rather than plot-driven, so it's as if the book was written as it was remembered or dreamed. Rather than any particular facts or events, his focus is on how those facts and events are remembered and perceived. I couldn't put this book down. Great work.
Rating:
Summary: Sri Lanka and the bloodbath that is totally out of control
Review: Sri Lanka is a world unknown to me. That's why I was so captivated by this recent novel by Michael Ondaatje, author of "The English Patient", and native to this war-torn land. Even though he now lives in Canada, it's obvious he loves his homeland and is saddened by the sorrow it went though during the 1980s. Using language of poetic beauty, he introduces the reader to his lead character, Anil Tissera. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she left the country as a young woman to study in England. Trained as a forensic anthropologist, she also lived in the Arizona, working in the local morgue. Later, she worked in Central America, digging up graves and identifying the remains. Now in her thirties, she is sent to Sri Lanka to investigate the horror that has swept her country. It is not an easy job. And it is not easy to read about. Mr. Ondaatje wisely stays away from the actual political details of the conflict. He never lays blame on any one group and never specifically identifies them. It was only later that I discovered that the war involved complex issues between Hindus and Buddhists as well as a variety of corrupt government military forces. Each group is passionately dedicated to its cause, and each one keeps murdering and being murdered. People are disappearing. The country is in turmoil. And human remains show up that need to be identified. So when Anil comes to Sri Lanka, it is not only memories of the beautiful land and her childhood she has to revisit. She has to get down to work to the nitty-gritty business of identifying skeletons. And the reader goes right along with her, learning about the details of her craft as well as the political intrigue that makes it practically impossible to trust anyone. Along the way we meet the other characters. There's the archeologist she's assigned to work with. There's his doctor brother. There's a villager who works in the mine and who also has the technical skill to rebuild the face of a skeleton. There's a middle-class doctor who is captured in order to serve one of the rebel groups. There's an elderly blind archeologist with a lifetime of learning and insight. And there is Sri Lanka itself, with all its natural beauty, which is plunged into a bloodbath that is totally out of control. The book is disturbing and brilliant and sometimes rambling. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the different kinds of physical effects that death and torture have on a body. And, in spite of having to take a deep breath and steeling myself for what I knew I would be reading about every time I picked up the book, I found myself completely involved and always fascinated. I definitely recommend this book. But be forewarned; it is not for the squeamish.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: Anil Tissera has spent much of her life in America but she returns to her homeland, Sri Lanka, commissioned by an international human rights group to determine the source of murder campaigns on the island. Anil is a forensic anthropologist and she is assigned to work with Sarath, a local official. Bodies are discovered. When they identify a skeleton buried on a site where only government officials have access it seems their results could prove the government responsible for his and other deaths. That is when the plot starts warming up. The characters in this book are as wonderful as those Ondaatje created in The English Patient though I cannot say I enjoyed this book as much as his earlier ones.
Rating:
Summary: A novel that reads like poetry
Review: I loved "The English Patient" and was so excited when I saw that Ondaatje had a new book out. Although the first part of the book is slow and hard to get into, the lyrical prose and imagery eventually draw you in and the story becomes more involving. Ondaatje makes Sri Lanka and the internal strife there incredibly vivid. I think this book is worthy of four and a half stars because writing on the level of Ondaatje's is so hard to find, even though finally, for me, it could not quite measure up to the masterpiece of The English Patient."
Rating:
Summary: It's Sri Lanka, but it could be Mexico or So. America
Review: A unique style of writing. What struck me was that the Sri Lanka setting could have been replaced with locations like Mexico or any where in So. America, as well as other countries. The disappearance of every-day people without government concern continues around the world. In Juarez, Mexico, hundreds of young girls & women disappear every day and even with forensic scientist, such as Anil, no justice results. I found the story good and would recommend reading it, even though it was slow in some areas.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - But not for Everyone
Review: After reading "Anil's Ghost" and many of the reviews, I realize that Ondaatje is a better writer than many of the reviewers are readers. He is too hard for them. Ondaatje is simply one of the greatest writers today in the english languague. His stories are dense, challenging, powerful, and topical. But he's not for everyone. For the reviewer who couldn't get to the end, or the one who preferred "Icy Sparks", no question you are better off with another author. Ondaatje is a serious writer at the top of his career. Anil's Ghost, whose plot and characters are ably described in other reviews, is a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: The Phantom Country
Review: There are many ghosts in Michael Ondataatje's lyrical novel. Set in Sri Lanka during the late 1980s, "Anil's Ghost" brings poetic fictional graces to the horrific civil war which plagued the country through most of the decade. Centered on the search of its central heroine, a forensic anthropologist, for the hideous facts hidden in the skeletons of her native country's citizenry, the book gently probes for the source of all the malevolence. Ultimately, though, reality in these circumstances is elusive, and ghosts are the most tangible witnesses to the truth. At its core "Anil's Ghost" is a search for identity. The title character's mission takes her back to a past and culture she had long since jettisoned, but still carries around like a
millstone. Anil is testimony to the emotional perils of a globalized world. Drawn by the seductive lures of the west, she lives for years studying and exploring in Europe and the midwest before embarking on her quixotic quest for justice in her native land. She never has both feet comfortably in one place, and her love for her country is always ambivalent at best. Back at home her journey becomes ever more personal. In the company of several colleagues from her past, who force to relive painful family truths, she fixates on one discarded skeleton, "Sailor". In a clear metaphor for her own search for herself, she applies all her formidable forensic skills to uncovering the secrets of one dead man's life. In so doing, she seems to think, all the collective deceptions of her life and her country will be laid bare. Ondaatje's style is passionate in a restrained and lyrical way, making the book seem at times like a chronicle of a dream. Many of the anecdotes are disconnected, and it's a bit hard to latch on to the characters in a concrete way. None of them, or much else in the book, seem very real. They're all like ghosts, and it's hard to know who or what to trust. But the author's command of language makes the novel brim with yearning and possibility. The story drips with tropical languor mixed with a vague, omnipresent menace. And it's made more disturbing that the enemies here, both in the mind and outside, are never really visible.
Rating:
Summary: Sri Lankan mysticism faces the reality of civil war
Review: This book offers the reader two clashing worlds, the first put in place by centuries of traditions. The mystery of Buddha's all seeing eyes that are created by those men trained to paint the eyes at the break of dawn, a technique passed down from father to son. The other is a modern day world of death squads, where thousands of people disappear in the night never to be seen again; government troops clash with insurgents from the north and south, torture and betrayal go hand in hand. Anil has been sent back to this island of her childhood as a forensic anthropologist for an international group concerned with human rights. She is there in an attempt to determine the cause of thousands of deaths. she will try to bring some closure to the many family left waiting and wondering. One particular skeleton holds the key to her conviction and the author winds his story cleverly between the two worlds. I would give this book 3.5 stars. It was interesting and informative. I enjoyed the cultural aspects presented and the depth of the characters...
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