

Loading... The English Patient (1992)by Michael Ondaatje
![]()
Booker Prize (13) » 56 more Best Historical Fiction (100) 501 Must-Read Books (111) Historical Fiction (81) 20th Century Literature (165) Unread books (130) BBC Radio 4 Bookclub (25) Top Five Books of 2013 (512) A Novel Cure (128) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (107) World War I Fiction (22) Favourite Books (1,036) Elegant Prose (26) Books Read in 2020 (3,325) Books tagged favorites (177) Fiction For Men (38) Africa (48) 1990s (211) Books Set In Africa (29) Tagged 20th Century (23) Protagonists - Men (18) Books Set in Canada (19) Big Jubilee List (12) War Literature (15) Best Love Stories (27) Books Set in Italy (80) Contemporary Fiction (12) I Can't Finish This Book (165) No current Talk conversations about this book. I love beautiful writing, but this is just pretentious....maybe I'll watch the movie. ( ![]() This book is a literary and emotional experience. If I had read it a year ago I would have probably given two stars or less. The language and flow are heavy as molasses at times and some descriptions are off, but it really speaks to anyone who experienced love, loss and grief. It also raises question about the moral and emotional cost of war. The story plays in an Italian villa that brings together four broken characters weaving their daily interactions with their back stories. The badly burnt "English Patient", who is cared for by the war nurse Hana, are joined by David Carvaggio and Kip (the bomb expert or sapper as he is called in the novel). As these characters take refuge and comfort in each other's company their pain and grief unfolds in memories. We get to know especially the Patient who is not what he seems to be and who grieves a lost love. Then we know Kip the young Indian, who turned out to be a brilliant sapper although thrust unwillingly into this "white-man's" war. Then there are the two Canadians the young Hana, the war nurse, grown up and old before her time although we see flashes of her childish spirit, and David Carvaggio the mysterious character, who was used as an agent or "thief" in the war, and ended up punished badly for it. The thrust of the novel is its emotional power and how the author dealt with the fragile human condition, exposed in the harsh and ambiguous moral landscape of war, death, and betrayal. It is a compelling read worthy of revisiting. https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3725035.html I found it really evocative of the times and places of the settings, and liked the integration of the plotlines as representing the healing of the protagonist. But again I found myself curiously unmoved by it. I am a bit surprised that the book won the Booker and the film the Oscar. But there's no accounting for taste, and I know mine is sometimes a minority opinion. Michelle's favorite book! When this movie came out, I was in college, and was right along with Elaine Benes in absolutely hating it. As a result, I didn't have much interest in reading Michael Ondaatje's novel. However, it's on the 1,001 list, which is very fortunate, because I completely enjoyed the novel (and assume I would also enjoy the film now that I'm older and wiser.) The characters really came off the page and the story was very gripping even though I knew where it all was going. Really, just a wonderful book reading experience because of the way the prose just cozies up to you.
Ondaatje gibt jedem Charakter die Möglichkeit, sich dem Leser zu präsentieren und die ganz eigene Geschichte zu erzählen. Dabei ergreift er nicht Partei, sondern lässt die Figuren ganz einfach aus ihrem Blickwinkel erzählen. Die Schnittstelle, die sie verbinden, werden durch die Orte, an denen sie sich aufgehalten haben, definiert und dadurch geradezu greifbar. Zufälligkeiten scheinen ursächlich zu sein, dass die Personen in Kontakt treten und wieder voneinander scheiden. Die Schwierigkeit, jeder Figur ihren Platz innerhalb dieser Geschichte zuzuweisen, ohne den Faden zu verlieren, bewältigt Ondaatje meisterhaft. ... the plane must have been drying out under its tarpaulin in the desert for eight years. It is entirely covered with sand. Almasy `digs' it out : with what? ... Having shifted tons of sand ... he moves, single-handed, the plane out on to the level, so it can take off. How, single-handed, does he `swing the prop'? ... sand would have penetrated moving parts of the machinery and would have to be meticulously dusted out. ... Almasy merely pours in his can of petrol -- and the engine starts! It is a complex and confusing novel whose readers might easily want to consult the index simply to untangle the threads of the plot ... to clarify events that had another meaning ... in an earlier context. Una vez oí a una mujer africana decir que no se podía describir África, que África solo se entiende si se ha vivido allí. Hace años ya de aquel momento y, sin embargo, esas palabras se me han quedado grabadas y las recuerdo con frecuencia. Por ejemplo, me han venido a la memoria al leer El paciente inglés, de Michael Ondaatje, y no solo porque hable de lo que supone atravesar el desierto de Libia, algo inimaginable para nuestras cabezas acostumbradas a vidas sencillas, sino porque además transmite el peso de la guerra, un hecho también inconcebible para los que siempre hemos vivido en paz. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inHas the (non-series) prequelHas the adaptationHas as a student's study guide
The Booker Prize-winning novel, now a critically acclaimed major motion picture, starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Kristin Scott Thomas. With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminates this book like flashes of heat lightening. No library descriptions found. |
Popular covers
![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54 — Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |