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sarah_richmond 's review for:
Anil's Ghost
by Michael Ondaatje
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.