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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
this had all the elements of the english patient but just didn’t work somehow
I really loved reading THE ENGLISH PATIENT -- it was intricate and complex and rewarding in terms of structure, plot and character development. This book had many of those same pleasures, but I found reading a book that takes place in Sri Lanka to evade my imagination too often. I just couldn't see the story in the way I can with landscapes that are more familiar or common. Good though. Especially for people interested in forensic anthropology and history.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
As someone who doesn't really care too much for all the TV programming about forensics, I actually really enjoyed this book, the main character of which is a forensic scientist. For me, it brought together geopolitics, history, art and medicine together in a fluid balance, but perhaps most interesting to me was the setting in Sri Lanka. I've certainly been aware of the civil strife that has led to a staggering number of brutal deaths within the country, but this is an evocative addition to news reportage. Ondaatje emphasizes the fact that both sides have done terrible things, and that many citizens who want to remain neutral cannot -- or are not allowed to. To me, Anil's personal backstory is interesting, but not the real heart of the matter. I found myself being a bit inattentive when the book would flash back to her relationship with Cullis or her frienship with Leaf. Neither seemed to add a lot to the fascinating plot in Sri Lanka. The supporting Sri Lankan characters are richly drawn and unique, and the book certainly opened my eyes to the fascinating but rarely-discussed (in the U.S.) history of art and Buddhism in the country. But, even for the casual reader, those references aren't heavy enough to make the book cumbersome or boring. Ondaatje does a lot with a minimum of words, but that's the poet in him.
There was a lot going on in this book, and I just didn't feel as thought I ever got a handle on all of it. I didn't dislike the book, like so many people in the book club did. But I really didn't feel like I got the message.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Michael Ondaatje is one of those writers who doesn't write, but paints. His pen is a paintbrush, his paper is a canvas, and he uses words like colors to paint fragments of his characters' lives; pieces of the mosaic we call a novel. Just as his prose is broken into pieces, whose gaps hide more details than what’s written, his characters often get to be these torn, damaged individuals in search of something to complete them.
In "The English Patient," a novel published before "Anil's Ghost", four characters find themselves in the ruins of an Italian villa, and through a story about a tumultuous affair, they put together a puzzle of their identities finally reaching a solution. A dying man is what keeps them together. "Anil's Ghost" has a skeleton, a remains of an unknown person, that just like the mysterious Englishman in "The English Patient" binds three characters around itself. Each character with a tragic fate is described in a way no one but Ondaatje could have done. So Sailor, a name given to him by Anil and Sarath, becomes the center of the story.
Anil Tissera, a young woman with a male name bought from her brother by sexual favors because she didn't like the one given by her parents, returns to her home country of Sri Lanka after 15 years living in the West. She's no longer the swimmer everyone knew and everyone remembers her for. She now works for the UN as a forensic anthropologist tasked with finding evidence of atrocities permeated in the bloody civil war that has been raging across the country between the three sides, neither of which is innocent.
Sarath is her partner, an archaeologist assigned by the government to help her work. She suspects he's here to cover up any evidence of the killing of civilians, and her suspicions for his loyalty are legitimate as his cousin is a cabinet minister. Sarath’s distance and coldness just amplify that notion of a mole.
Gamini, Sarath's younger brother, is a doctor at a hospital in Colombo. Hooked on amphetamines to withstand the effort of his job, he spends all his time in the emergency room. His house after his wife left him is a home for another family because Gamini chose to be a waif that lives in the hospital, in love with a dead woman that never belonged to him for she was the wife of Sarath, a brother in whose shadow he always lived in and with whom he has no contact now.
Three characters, each dealing with life and death in their way, living solitary lives in their cocoons, hidden behind work. Their loneliness is their penance, this devotion to work is an attempt to forget the past, the spirits that haunt them.
Weaving the fates of these characters, along with a few others, using his poetic style, Ondaatje offers us a novel of palpable atmosphere and strong emotions; whether he writes about the game of two lovers, about failed marriages, or vicious murders. Through the search for the identity of Sailor and his killers, they reject the loneliness with which they defend themselves and come to peace, albeit for a short time, paying dearly.
However, it is not just a novel about three damaged characters and their tragic destinies, through the craftily use of the symbolism of Ondaatje's tells the story of war and its consequences, the story of countless victims abducted in broad daylight and killed simply because they belonged to the other side or that they happened to be where they shouldn’t be, about peace, much needed in every country that went through a civil war-like Sri Lanka as well as the identity, something he likes very fond of.
Although many people will not like it because of the fragmentation of its narrative, which is still more complete than the one in "The English Patient", and may therefore feel a disconnect with the characters, "Anil's Spirit" is certainly a novel worth read more times.
In "The English Patient," a novel published before "Anil's Ghost", four characters find themselves in the ruins of an Italian villa, and through a story about a tumultuous affair, they put together a puzzle of their identities finally reaching a solution. A dying man is what keeps them together. "Anil's Ghost" has a skeleton, a remains of an unknown person, that just like the mysterious Englishman in "The English Patient" binds three characters around itself. Each character with a tragic fate is described in a way no one but Ondaatje could have done. So Sailor, a name given to him by Anil and Sarath, becomes the center of the story.
Anil Tissera, a young woman with a male name bought from her brother by sexual favors because she didn't like the one given by her parents, returns to her home country of Sri Lanka after 15 years living in the West. She's no longer the swimmer everyone knew and everyone remembers her for. She now works for the UN as a forensic anthropologist tasked with finding evidence of atrocities permeated in the bloody civil war that has been raging across the country between the three sides, neither of which is innocent.
Sarath is her partner, an archaeologist assigned by the government to help her work. She suspects he's here to cover up any evidence of the killing of civilians, and her suspicions for his loyalty are legitimate as his cousin is a cabinet minister. Sarath’s distance and coldness just amplify that notion of a mole.
Gamini, Sarath's younger brother, is a doctor at a hospital in Colombo. Hooked on amphetamines to withstand the effort of his job, he spends all his time in the emergency room. His house after his wife left him is a home for another family because Gamini chose to be a waif that lives in the hospital, in love with a dead woman that never belonged to him for she was the wife of Sarath, a brother in whose shadow he always lived in and with whom he has no contact now.
Three characters, each dealing with life and death in their way, living solitary lives in their cocoons, hidden behind work. Their loneliness is their penance, this devotion to work is an attempt to forget the past, the spirits that haunt them.
Weaving the fates of these characters, along with a few others, using his poetic style, Ondaatje offers us a novel of palpable atmosphere and strong emotions; whether he writes about the game of two lovers, about failed marriages, or vicious murders. Through the search for the identity of Sailor and his killers, they reject the loneliness with which they defend themselves and come to peace, albeit for a short time, paying dearly.
However, it is not just a novel about three damaged characters and their tragic destinies, through the craftily use of the symbolism of Ondaatje's tells the story of war and its consequences, the story of countless victims abducted in broad daylight and killed simply because they belonged to the other side or that they happened to be where they shouldn’t be, about peace, much needed in every country that went through a civil war-like Sri Lanka as well as the identity, something he likes very fond of.
Although many people will not like it because of the fragmentation of its narrative, which is still more complete than the one in "The English Patient", and may therefore feel a disconnect with the characters, "Anil's Spirit" is certainly a novel worth read more times.
When I went to read this book I found not only that I had read it several years before, but that many of the ideas I had about Sri Lanka came from that reading, though I barely remembered the story. Anyway, I finished it again. I enjoyed the book, though I found the ending somewhat less satisfying than Divisadero.
slow-paced