Hate it (Reviewer B): What a dog’s breakfast. For me it’s one of the stand out Booker Prize winners, a novel that has stayed in my mind long after I got to the final page.
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It’s a story that deserves to be read slowly to get the full benefit of Ondaatje’s descriptive powers and depth of understanding of human nature. It’s a tale of healing and renewal, of nationality and identity, and of belonging and isolation told through beautifully constructed prose. Ultimately none of these people can escape the reality of who they are. Kip searches every day for hidden explosives and trip wires around the property only to discover that more catastrophic destabilising forces lie far on the other side of the world. But the dangers of the outside world are forever present. The villa is their refuge and a place where they hope to heal their wounds.
Ondaatje gives us four people who are physically, emotionally and mentally damaged by war. Reading it is to experience a master storyteller at work. If you’re excited when all those stylistic approaches come together in one book and you love novels that pulse with emotion and meaning, you will relish The English Patient. If you’re keen on hearing the voices of multiple narrators, this is certainly one you’ll savour. If you prefer character studies to action-fuelled dramas, this is the book for you.
Love it (Reviewer A):If you enjoy story arcs that don’t take you direct from A to Z, you’ll appreciate The English Patient. And at the center of his labyrinth lies the English patient, nameless and hideously burned, a man who is both a riddle and a provocation to his companions-and whose memories of suffering, rescue, and betrayal illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning. The Indian sapper Kip searches for hidden bombs in a landscape where nothing is safe but himself. Caravaggio, the thief, tries to reimagine who he is, now that his hands are hopelessly maimed. The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, obsessively tends to her last surviving patient. Synopsis (from Goodreads): With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. So the question is… do you Love it or Hate it? Continue reading to find see our two reviews. This month’s selection is The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. It is another book that is on Boxall’s 1001 List of Books to Read Before you Die. My husband, Dan, was our Love it Reviewer and Andrew (a newly added contributor) was our Hate it Reviewer. Last time we discussed The World According to Garp. Well, welcome to the Love it or Hate it post category! Each month, we’ll pick one book to review and two contributors will battle it out to convince you to pick it up or throw it out. Instead people either seem to love it or hate it. Have you ever noticed how some books seem to drive a wedge between people? You check the reviews and find almost no middle-of-the-road ratings.
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