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A review by marc129
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
3.0
Michael Ondaatje has a writing style that is compelling and enchanting, and immediately draws you into the story and does not let you go. Mind you, it is not fireworks with which he seduces you, but rather a groping, laborious search for a mysterious past. In other words, here we are confronted again with the theme of Time-Memory-Remembrance that Ondaatje played with in [b:The English Patient|11713|The English Patient|Michael Ondaatje|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320527907l/11713._SY75_.jpg|3009869], his most famous novel. There it was a gravely wounded man who only very gradually remembers who he was. Here in 'Warlight', too, he stages a man who is looking for the truth about his traumatic past, and who, while telling the story, involves us in that painstakingly and disconcerting puzzle work.
I am not going to reveal the story here, that would spoil the reading pleasure. But the departing point is that in 1945, immediately after the war, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his elder sister were left by his mother and father and entrusted to the care of a strange company of men and women. The father himself immediately disappears from view, but throughout the novel the mother will keep on hanging like a shadow over the young Nathaniel, that is the protagonist and the story telling voice of this novel. From page 1 there is something mysterious about that the mother and that company of "guardians", something that is clearly connected with the past war, with espionage and with semi-legal activities.
Certainly in the first part, Ondaatje succeeds very well in evoking the ‘unheimlich’ atmosphere of groping in the dark depths of the past, a sounding of secrets that are never completely revealed. In that sense, the novel has a mesmerizing kind of indeterminateness and diffuseness, reminding of looking at things in dim light. It is no coincidence that this is a reference to the title of this book, because in the war at night all the lamps had to be covered. He also connects this with a coming-of-age story, through which the reader is drawn into the labyrinth. Pretty soon I had the feeling that I had read this kind of story before, even several times, and suddenly the name of the French writer (and Nobel prize winner) [a:Patrick Modiano|112052|Patrick Modiano|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570786042p2/112052.jpg] came to mind: in his books too, we are constantly confronted with protagonists who dig into their past, groping in the dark, with the same aura of mystery and unsavory businesses. Modiano too succeeds in pulling you into this quest, struggling to find answers on what really happened back in the past, and at the end always being left in the dark (that’s why a lot of people don’t like reading Modiano).
But this is exactly where the difference is between Modiano and Ondaatje: Ondaatje tries to provide answers, at least partially. In the second part of 'WarLight' we see the elder Nathaniel putting the pieces of the puzzle together and gradually getting a little insight into what exactly was going on with his mother. And here we end up in a well written, but rather banal mix of espionage and love story. To me this part was just a bit too explanatory to appeal. On top of that, the surprising turn at the end was a letdown, as Ondaatje explicitly stresses that nothing is what it seems to be.
This is a beautiful novel, without a doubt, well composed and, as said, at times very compelling, with enticing passages. But in the end, it became too much an ordinary spy novel. I must say that I prefer the indefinable, more diffuse and elusive, and definitely more refined approach of Modiano.
(rating 2.5 stars)
I am not going to reveal the story here, that would spoil the reading pleasure. But the departing point is that in 1945, immediately after the war, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his elder sister were left by his mother and father and entrusted to the care of a strange company of men and women. The father himself immediately disappears from view, but throughout the novel the mother will keep on hanging like a shadow over the young Nathaniel, that is the protagonist and the story telling voice of this novel. From page 1 there is something mysterious about that the mother and that company of "guardians", something that is clearly connected with the past war, with espionage and with semi-legal activities.
Certainly in the first part, Ondaatje succeeds very well in evoking the ‘unheimlich’ atmosphere of groping in the dark depths of the past, a sounding of secrets that are never completely revealed. In that sense, the novel has a mesmerizing kind of indeterminateness and diffuseness, reminding of looking at things in dim light. It is no coincidence that this is a reference to the title of this book, because in the war at night all the lamps had to be covered. He also connects this with a coming-of-age story, through which the reader is drawn into the labyrinth. Pretty soon I had the feeling that I had read this kind of story before, even several times, and suddenly the name of the French writer (and Nobel prize winner) [a:Patrick Modiano|112052|Patrick Modiano|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1570786042p2/112052.jpg] came to mind: in his books too, we are constantly confronted with protagonists who dig into their past, groping in the dark, with the same aura of mystery and unsavory businesses. Modiano too succeeds in pulling you into this quest, struggling to find answers on what really happened back in the past, and at the end always being left in the dark (that’s why a lot of people don’t like reading Modiano).
But this is exactly where the difference is between Modiano and Ondaatje: Ondaatje tries to provide answers, at least partially. In the second part of 'WarLight' we see the elder Nathaniel putting the pieces of the puzzle together and gradually getting a little insight into what exactly was going on with his mother. And here we end up in a well written, but rather banal mix of espionage and love story. To me this part was just a bit too explanatory to appeal. On top of that, the surprising turn at the end was a letdown, as Ondaatje explicitly stresses that nothing is what it seems to be.
This is a beautiful novel, without a doubt, well composed and, as said, at times very compelling, with enticing passages. But in the end, it became too much an ordinary spy novel. I must say that I prefer the indefinable, more diffuse and elusive, and definitely more refined approach of Modiano.
(rating 2.5 stars)