With unsettling beauty and intelligence, this Golden Man Booker Prize–winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, obsessively tends to her last surviving patient. Caravaggio, the thief, tries to reimagine who he is, now that his hands are hopelessly maimed. The Indian sapper Kip searches … sapper Kip searches for hidden bombs in a landscape where nothing is safe but himself. 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.
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I have read everything Michael Ondaatje has published. He is a divinely gifted artist with words. A magician of language. An aficionado of sentences. He writes prose poetry, poetic prose.
THE ENGLISH PATIENT is warm, gentle, and very wise. It breathes a joy of storytelling, a power of senses, an impressive body of knowledge, and true wisdom of the heart.
This is book has the most beautiful lyrical writing that I have ever come across. The story is a well-told mystery romance set in WWII Africa/Italy. The writing evokes deep appreciation of the beauty of the world around us including the people that we meet in a wonderfully reflective way. At the same time, it most definitely requires great commitment from the reader – this is NOT a slow or easy read. Nonetheless, most worth the effort.
Finally got around to reading the book after seeing the movie many times. It is wonderfully written and the characters are developed well. I enjoyed the book and it gave me a different perspective from the movie.
The English Patient is a powerfully evocative and mesmerizing portrait of the personal toll of war. The haunting storylines take place during the latter days of the Second World War in a small Italian town where three war-wearied individuals converge at a villa. Each of them has varying interest in a fourth character, an utterly unrecognizable Englishman suffering from burns over his entire body. This “English patient” may or may not be who he claims to be, or he may be more than he wants to reveal. Linking characters over time and place, Ondaatje is masterful at unraveling the wounded depth of their pasts. He brings beauty to their trials and finds something lovely out of the horrors and psychological scars of their experiences. The novel explores the obsession of love, the passion of longing, the secrets of identity, and the sources of sadness, insanity, and healing. Ondaatje is that rare writer who can balance the dichotomy of love and hate, kindness and betrayal, and compassion and contempt. The aching lushness of his language and the sureness of his words attain a superior level of craftsmanship. Having read this novel several times, I continue to discover new and enlightening insights each time. Its impact does not diminish.
I’ve read this book twice with about 20 years between readings. It’s haunting and continues to occupy a permanent space in my memory because of the story line, because of the strength of the characters and because of their interaction with one another. Read it!
Beautifully written. Intensely emotional.
Difficult and unforgettable.
A very thought-provoking read.
Incredible. A story I will return to again and again.
A badly burned English patient lives out his dying days in an abandoned Italian villa in the later stages of WW2 with his nurse Hana, and in the company of Caravaggio, a roguish spy who knows Hana’s family from pre-war Canada, and Kip, an Indian unexploded bomb-disassembler. The narrative presents Hana’s, Caravaggio’s and Kip’s war experiences and lingering torments, but the book’s fulcrum is the English Patient’s story of his explorations of the Libyan desert during which he found the illicit love of his life. A terrific contrast is struck as The English Patient’s story exposes his surprising past and moves toward finality, while Hana and Kip become lovers and represent hope for the future. The story is told in a dreamy style of writing, more so than any other title on this list. It’s not only the prose, but shifting narrative images like a kaleidoscope, and sometimes paragraphs which are constructed with sentences about seemingly unconnected subjects, untethered almost, but when considered closely make a unified thought that moves the story forward. Or it can be in rapid omniscient point of view shifts when the protagonists are proximate. Reading this book forced me to slow down, and soak in the words and meaning to benefit, which is worth it when it’s done this well.
Was this review helpful? I am an avid world war based fiction reader and author. You can read more of my takes at https://brodiecurtis.com/curtis-takes/.
I found it difficult to get into.
Although this story is old, I enjoyed it a lot. It held my interest until the end, and then I rented the movie, which was also old. I didn’t think the movie followed the book very well, but I enjoyed them both!
A great book – I finally read it because it was named the greatest by Man-Booker.
Didficult to read but worth it. Excellent!
It was such beautiful writing; the best poetry ever!
One of the top ten of all I’ve read.
I found The English Patient very difficult to read and ended up not finishing the book.
Excellent for its historical and psychological insight, while an engaging romantic novel.
Great story and characters. One of my favorites. Good movie too.
Found it hard to read. Didn’t finish.