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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
Amazing, was holding my breath through the whole last third of the book
Not one of my favorite Ondaatje titles. It is lacking in too many areas and seems to be trying to reach something that was never obtainable. Still, strangely, worth reading.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first piece of historical fiction I’ve read about the massacres during the Sri Lankan civil war. Ondaatje is a poet in novelist’s clothing, he writes a murder mystery housed inside a soliloquy on genocidal silence and violence.
The ghosts are plenty, the bardo of war and restorative justice unresolved. I’ve seen this described as a novel of fragments, and it is. It also pieces together a forensic tale like bone shards gathered after a land mine, glued in a mosaic. There isn’t a complete picture, nor a pretty one, but boy is it art with a message.
The ghosts are plenty, the bardo of war and restorative justice unresolved. I’ve seen this described as a novel of fragments, and it is. It also pieces together a forensic tale like bone shards gathered after a land mine, glued in a mosaic. There isn’t a complete picture, nor a pretty one, but boy is it art with a message.
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
“There could never be any logic to human violence without the distance of time…
She used to believe that meaning allowed a person a door to escape grief and fear, but she saw that those who were slammed and stained by violence lost the power of language and logic.”
I really liked the prose of this book; I listened to it on audiobook so I found it hard to trace all the perspectives. Wouldn’t mind a hard copy to better understand Sarath
Seriously?
If this review had a title, it would be "Fiona Doesn't Care."
And that's saying a lot. It's Sri Lanka, mid-90s, civil war, brutality of the worst kind. And I STILL didn't care what happened. Because while people are being tortured and beheaded, their heads displayed on sticks for all to see, the main characters are bumbling around the country with some skeleton named Sailor, trying to find out where he worked at the time of his disappearance. I understand that Ondaajte is attempting to whittle down the war's horrors to their smallest form, but in doing so he has managed to strip all meaning from larger-scale events.
The ONLY reason this book gets two stars instead of one is because of the last 70 pages. Most of this portion focuses on Gamini, the book's most interesting character -- a war doctor on speed. Funny thing is, he's a secondary character. Anil was a shadow to me, a mere figment. I didn't come away knowing her at all.
So yeah, don't understand why Ondaatje is worshipped as one of Canada's all-time literary treasures. I'll give him one more chance with In the Skin of a Lion, but after that I am DONE.
If this review had a title, it would be "Fiona Doesn't Care."
And that's saying a lot. It's Sri Lanka, mid-90s, civil war, brutality of the worst kind. And I STILL didn't care what happened. Because while people are being tortured and beheaded, their heads displayed on sticks for all to see, the main characters are bumbling around the country with some skeleton named Sailor, trying to find out where he worked at the time of his disappearance. I understand that Ondaajte is attempting to whittle down the war's horrors to their smallest form, but in doing so he has managed to strip all meaning from larger-scale events.
The ONLY reason this book gets two stars instead of one is because of the last 70 pages. Most of this portion focuses on Gamini, the book's most interesting character -- a war doctor on speed. Funny thing is, he's a secondary character. Anil was a shadow to me, a mere figment. I didn't come away knowing her at all.
So yeah, don't understand why Ondaatje is worshipped as one of Canada's all-time literary treasures. I'll give him one more chance with In the Skin of a Lion, but after that I am DONE.
this had all the elements of the english patient but just didn’t work somehow