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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-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
I liked it well enough.
Fast fast fast paced but unremarkable in the impact it had. I expected to be moved (torture, murder, disappearances) but I found that my (scant, but nonetheless) past reading of Sri Lanka made me wonder why Ondaatje said so much yet so little.
None of the characters were developed with any measure of effort. As another reviewer said, he seems to have sacrificed substance for style.
(I should just give it a 2, innit?)
Fast fast fast paced but unremarkable in the impact it had. I expected to be moved (torture, murder, disappearances) but I found that my (scant, but nonetheless) past reading of Sri Lanka made me wonder why Ondaatje said so much yet so little.
None of the characters were developed with any measure of effort. As another reviewer said, he seems to have sacrificed substance for style.
(I should just give it a 2, innit?)
This was a book that I recently reread after a visit to Sri Lanka. It does not follow a traditional path and the intersecting story lines are not completely clear in my mind. At the same time, it’s a lovely story of a tragic time and people who are trying to keep moving forward.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Atmospheric and rather lyrical, like The English Patient. Ondaatje is very sensual. "She dries her arms in the darkness of the living room, puts her left hand to her mouth so she can lick the rain off the bangle."
And somehow feels colonial even as it tries to be local, tries to be native. I'll have to think about that to figure out why or what I mean. I guess the author comes across as an outsider.
Even as it rails against war, it's so attentive and inventive/romantic about the way people act and feel that it feels more as if it's embracing war. Like the doctor who subsumes himself in the all-consuming life of serving in a war hospital; "the important thing is being able to live in a place or a situation in which you must use your sixth sense all the time." The novel doesn't really seem to interrogate it, so much as enjoy its ruinous romance.
The foreign setting, the colonialness, sensually atmospheric, some lyricism, I should have liked it, but it didn't hit for me.
And somehow feels colonial even as it tries to be local, tries to be native. I'll have to think about that to figure out why or what I mean. I guess the author comes across as an outsider.
Even as it rails against war, it's so attentive and inventive/romantic about the way people act and feel that it feels more as if it's embracing war. Like the doctor who subsumes himself in the all-consuming life of serving in a war hospital; "the important thing is being able to live in a place or a situation in which you must use your sixth sense all the time." The novel doesn't really seem to interrogate it, so much as enjoy its ruinous romance.
The foreign setting, the colonialness, sensually atmospheric, some lyricism, I should have liked it, but it didn't hit for me.
Had a difficult time getting into the characters. It was technical and didn't generate interest in characters.
Not as enthralling as previous novels I've read by this author.