The English Patient

THE ENGLISH PATIENT: Michael Ondaatje: Knopf: Fiction: 320 pages

This book has been on my to-read list for years, but after finally getting to it, I have to say I am disappointed. Typically, the book is always better than the movie, but in this case I would have to say the opposite.

The English Patient is the story of four people all damaged either mentally or physically by war. It takes place in an abandoned Tuscan villa in Italy during the aftermath of World War II.

The characters are Caravaggio, a thief who was betrayed and had his thumbs cut off; Kip, a Indian Sikh who works as a sapper dismantling bombs left by the retreating Germans; Hana, a war nurse who’s had enough with death; and the English patient, a man who was burned beyond recognition in a plane crash and who may or may not be a traitor to the Allied Forces.

The story is very non-linear as it delves in and out of each character’s past and present. It is very similar to the film, but in my opinion lacks the emotional intensity I felt in the movie.

I do like the way Ondaatje writes and he has a very lyrical way with words, so I can’t say to skip the book entirely, but I guess I was just expecting more.

AJ