Rating: 
Summary: Anil's Ghost: A critical comment
Review: Anil's Ghost" is Ondaatje's fictional response to the violence that gripped his native land in the eighties. Although the author had described some actual events or had created similar events, and in spite of its terseness at times, to me the novel as a whole is weak and unconvincing. The novelist does not provide or allude to any analysis of the cause of political terror. Ondaatje who left the country more than four decades ago (in 1962, or so) when he was barely twenty years, understandably does not seem to have a grasp of the social, economic and political changes that had taken place in his native land to depict their effects. Neither does he seem to have a proper understanding of the cultures of the people. One must live in the land among its people to develop such intimacy and knowledge. It is extremely unlikely that Ondaatje had witnessed the war or the terror either, the theme of his novel. Use of Anil as his protagonist, and the novelist's expatriate stance appears to be a clever ploy intended to overcome these deficiencies. With his obvious limitations and the lack of knowledge of his native land, the novelist is really only a passive observer to the tragedy. Hence his tone of voice. Making no distinction between the Sinhala and the Tamil militancy, he says tautologically, "the reason for war was war" which also appears to be the novelist's point of view. His apolitical gaze is a convenient way to avoid the real tragedy- the cause of the terror and the crisis. Given that politics pervade to all aspects of life in a country such as ours, this "attitude" seems irresponsible, apart from also being an insincere and unsympathetic view of the plight of all those victims and the survivors. With the unfolding of the melodramatic and somewhat weird episode relating to Sailor, Ondaatje provides an account of the personal tragedies of Sarath, his brother Gamini and the alcoholic artist Ananda. Conflict between Sarath and Gamini and their lives is probably intended to symbolise the moral crisis of the society. Without much subtlety of psychological analysis or insight to the culture of the people or the traditions of the land, these descriptions only lead to pages and pages of jejune and dull reading. The visit to the Grove of Ascetics, where we are introduced to Palipana, the blind epigraphist spending his last days in a forest almost like a monk- looked after by his orphaned niece, is a digression- though written well. Episodes relating to the abduction of Dr Linus Corea, assassination of President Katugala (the faithful re-enactment of President Premadasa's death) have no apparent purpose in the novel, apart from possibly being intended for the consumption of the western reader. There is a fine piece of writing (when taken separately) at the end describing the reconstruction of the Buduruvagala Buddha statue where the author brings back Ananda, his alcoholic apologist, to paint the eyes. We are told: "if he (Ananda) did not remain an artificer he would become a demon. The war around him was to do with demons, spectres of retaliation." The novelist has essentially chosen to portray the JVP victims (southern guerrilla group) and how the insurrection in the south was crushed in 1988 -90 era. Although he speaks analogously about a Hundred Years War sponsored by gun and drug-runners and backers being on the sidelines in safe countries, nothing is really presented (mercifully) on the fighting in the north or the Tamil victims of the war. As if suddenly becoming conscious of his oversight, in a clumsily contrived episode Ondaatje places Gamini in a Quickshaws Taxi and sends him to Trincomalee from Nugegoda for a holiday in Nilavali Beach Hotel- with a day's sojourn at a forest monastery near Arankale! We are then told about his brief encounter with the youthful Tamil militants at Trincomalee to whom Gamini acts as a doctor under bizarre circumstances. There is also an earlier similar episode in the novel relating the reunion between Anil and Lalitha, her Tamil Ayah who had been quite close to Anil from her childhood. This episode loses whatever its intended significance as Lalitha vanishes from the convoluted narrative and from the mind of the reader- as soon as Anil leaves her. In the absence of a "plot", Ondaatje seems guilty of resorting to techniques used by inferior novelists to "propel" his novel. One technique is to provide a prelude of one or two pages about a character (or an episode) in italicised font, before the reader could make the acquaintance of that character or the significance of the episode is related in the proper place of the novel. These preludes or premature insertions could be a hindrance to a first time reader. Probably Ondaatje is attempting to achieve brevity here. More irksome are those interruptions to the narrative where details of Anil's life overseas are forced on the reader. We are thus told intermittently and convolutely about Anil's failed first marriage, her tutelage, her childhood details, and her friendship with a married American man whom she stabs, and her close friendship with the lesbian lover, Leaf who is dying of illness. To me these details are impossibly boring and insipid. As a whole "Anils Ghost" is a very disappointing, futile piece of writing. Jayantha Anandappa (Australia)
Rating: 
Summary: A Country With as Many Ghosts as Living Humans
Review: Don't start this book expecting the wartime romance and the gorgeous, exotic visual imagery which characterized the English Patient and contributed so much to the film version's success. This is a long hard look at the cold realities of civil war, protracted and brutal. Set in Ondaatje's native land of Sri Lanka, the images used to portray this tragedy are haunting, often gruesome. The saddest and most visually touching of these is the anguished pieta metaphor for familial love, self sacrifice, and martyrdom so graphically described as the book depicts its final victim of political atrocities,the only victim we feel we have come to know. There can be no winners in this conflict-only losers. All survivors here carry the ghosts of their deceased loved ones- and in living on risk that eventual fate themselves. Ondaatje is careful to avoid giving us much of any information regarding the conflict's background or political causes. Since we are ignorant, we do not take sides. It is his intent to show us the confusion and tragedy of civil war in general. The only information we have is the existence of 3 opposing factions, two guerilla groups fighting the existing government . The book's main protagonist is Anil who after her Western training and field experiences in forensic anthropology accepts an offer to return to her native homeland as an international human rights group's representative. Anil is determined to apply the scientific method to expose human rights abuses and subject their perpetrators to world opinion. As a returning expatriate, she makes it clear she choses not to be remembered as the local swim champion or as her physician father's daughter. Persistently goal directed, all of her attention instead is focused on discovering, scientifically proving, and revealing the actual circumstances involved in the death of a particular victim she discovers and nicknames "Sailor". Anil's blind determination in seeking the truth at any cost extends to total disregard for not only her own safety but for the vulnerability of her local associates. The fast paced early chapters follow her quest to solve a mystery. The book slows down as Ondaatje shows us a country full of victims, in fact victims of the guerillas as well as of the government. The futility of Anil's unwavering very purposeful mission and persistent determination to publicize the true facts of Sailor's case becomes evident, making the reader question if there is really any point to solving the mystery of any one particular victim here. This obsessive determination makes one recall her earlier letter to film director,John Boorman, when she writes to inquire about the forensics involved in the final death scene of a fictional movie. Surely this is science carried to the absurd! Her eventual comprehension of the very real sacrifice the accomplishment of this risky feat actually required will entail a very heavy burden, another ghost for Anil to carry. This ghost will be far heavier than Sailor.
Rating: 
Summary: an enrapturing commix of lyrical history & contemp. identity
Review: Ondaatje's tinglingly precise, visually captivating, and endlessly restless perspectives on the discontinuous Sri Lankan political and cultural convulsions (in the 80s) unravel from different directions and distances the vicissitudes of a Western identity (Anil) in absorbing, idiosyncratic allusions and discoveries of her transcendental nationality and its lyrical and macabre histories.
Rating:
Summary: a good book from a great writer
Review: This is Michael Ondaatje's most linear and most political book, but that doesn't make it a linear political novel. This book is structured around a series of vivid episodes told in lyrical prose -- although the lyricism is more restrained here than in his other novels, and sometimes the episodes seem just slightly canned, as though Ondaatje is imitating his own style. This may just be a result of the reemergence of the familiar Ondaatje themes and imagery -- obscure books, ruins, bodily sensuality, the lure of the anonymous. All rich themes, to be sure, tempered here with increased sobriety, perhaps as a result of Ondaatje's increased attention to political violence. The book examines the recent strife in Sri Lanka, and its repercussions on everyday people. A civil war among multiple factions, the Sri Lankan conflict is a representative example of the face of modern warfare, something most of us in North America have little direct experience with. This energizes the book, as does the book's character as a modern detective story (forensics), but its plot still seems to stall out in places-- the importance of the skeleton's identity is never quite established in the reader's mind once and for all. Ondaatje is a great writer, one of the best currently working, and he's at the top of his game, and this book truthfully is enjoyable, important, and often powerful; if it disappoints it does so only by virtue of not being a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Ondaatje has done it again...almost!
Review: After the spectaularly rich "English Patient", Ondaatje has done it again...almost. Anil's Ghost is set in the beautiful yet war-torn country of Sri Lanka. The heroine is Anil who was born in Sri Lanka, yet was educated in Europe and America as a forensic scientist. She is teamed with a anthropologist on a human rights mission to Sri Lanka to explore the many missing and murdered citizens of Sri Lanka. Trademark Ondaatje technique is in effect: a beautiful yet war-torn setting, extremely rich character descriptions, a "woven" style of writing, and a respite in an abandoned mansion. Yet what Ondaatje weaves for us this time is not quite so tight as English Patient. Nonetheless, extremely well-written and interesting, and disturbingly educational on human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Worth-reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for the light reader...
Review: I wanted to like this book a lot -- I bought it because it was moving up on the bestseller lists, because the lead character was a female forensic anthologist and largely because of the promised socio-political murder mystery. I'd enjoyed the English Patient (movie), and thought I'd enjoy reading this short novel. It's too intellectual (intelligent?) for my summer tastes, and I just can't get beyond page 140. If I don't look forward to continuing reading a book I've started, it's time to put the book away and look for something else to read. Why try to force myself to read something, when there are so many books (and so little time to read!) From the difference in the star ratings of reviewers, it seems obvious that enjoyment of this novel, written by a skilled writer, is a matter of personal tastes. Yes, it is well-written and well-thought out. For the patient, intellectural reader, I think this book would be good. For those of us who fall asleep easily, this book is difficult to get into and a somewhat tedious read. If you liked an English Patient, you'll probably like this book. If you're looking for light beach reading, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't really care
Review: While the novel deals with the tragic and pain of civil war--from murders and torture, to split families and corruption, the author could not make me care about neither the main characters or the Sri Lanka people. Going back and forth between the present and the past, the novel did not provide me with enough information about teh country and about the personal motivations of the characters. It was probaby meant to be like that but it did not work for me.
Rating:
Summary: I Gave up the Ghost
Review: I had high expectations when I bought this book! Mr. Ondaatje, after all, wrote _The English Patient_ which was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. Perhaps my mistake was only seeing the movie and not reading his book. Unfortunately, I have to report that _Anil's Ghost_ is disjointed, difficult and nearly impossible to finish. The reviews sounded enticing and I could not help but feel extraordinarily intrigued by the promise of the plot. I was very attracted to reading about a native Sri Lankan woman, Anil, educated in England and America. She is a forensic anthropologist working for an international human rights organization summomed to her homeland to investigate the murders and assorted organized atrocities against people from her country. Those responsible come from many factions, including the government. She is not an innocent to investigating these horrors. Her career has moved her through many towns in South and Central America where the task of locating clandestine burial sites and unearthing human remains is often done in the presence of family members hoping to identify the victims. Often, only a recognized piece of clothing found with the remains are all the immediate family has to confirm a loved one's death. The challenge to the anthropologists are not only determining the cause of death, but investigating the forensics to find those responsible. The basic story has merit and deserves respect for the efforts done globally by organizations committed to promoting and protecting human rights and investigating human rights violations. It goes without question that there is beautiful prose, and exceptionally intriguing content. It is just so unfortunate that the union of this novel's plot, (which went in too many directions), characters (too weak) and conclusion (too abrupt) did not do justice to it's important topic and make the read more deserving of widespread notoriety.
Rating:
Summary: Penetrating
Review: Anil's Ghost is without doubt the most keenly perceptive book that I have ever read. The plot is superb, the writing is exquisite, the characters real, and the execution of the prose is without parallel. I was humbled by Mr. Ondaatje's ability.
Rating: 
Summary: And you thought the English Patient was a rough read.
Review: Now it took me 3 attempts and the movie to finally get through The English Patient and I was enjoying the story. This one, however was a chore after the first 15 pages. I've picked it up, I've put it down, I've picked it up again, and finally the last time I decided to put it down on the seat on the subway next to me and pretend I never bought it in the first place. It seems like it was written with hatred of the reader in mind. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
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