The English Patient
1992 • 324 pages
Ratings36
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings36
Average rating3.7
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 illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning
Reviews with the most likes.
This book was nothing like what I expected. Though the basic plot follows what I had imagined it to be, I thought it to deal more with the locales rather than the people. I'm not sure why that is. I found it to be an engaging novel and easy to follow despite its non-linear format. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in realistic romance, World War II-era fiction, and a mysterious plot.
I have given this a 2, but I really didn't like it very much at all. The book is highly rated, so the fault must be with me, but it felt like a collection of bits of research on bomb disposal, deserts, Herodotus, within an unconvincing story on love and loss.
Amazing. I went into thinking that because of the film, the might be over-hyped.
Dear reader, it wasn't. Admittedly, I haven't read much literary fiction so I don't have a barometer to measure The English Patient against, but I have to say that this is one of the finer novels I've read.
4.5 stars.
This was so good! I enjoyed it so much, and it was such a genuine surprise the entire way through.
What I absolutely loved the most about this was the found family. Hana and Caravaggio especially have such a wonderful bond with each other, the way they banter, and how they knew each other before the war and are now able to see how it has changed each other and like the other for it more, it was just so heartwarming.
Kip ended up being a nice addition to their little family, despite him being a bit in his own little shell a lot. He ends up being the one to make them all hang out together with the English patient in a way where you really feel their love of each other's company.
All of the characters had such interesting stories, and were traumatized by the war they had been part of in different ways, but were understanding of each other and always respectful and I just really loved their family dynamic, okay, it was so wonderful!
Throughout, I was often wondering how I would rate the book, as I enjoyed almost all of it, and when I wasn't entirely enjoying it, it was more from a perspective of me not quite understanding what was happening for a page or two. But when we got to the last chapter is when it fell through a bit. There was a lot of exposition suddenly, and not in the way it had been before, and I wasn't a huge fan of it. Kip's reaction to hearing about the bombings in Japan, however, I thought was incredibly valid and nicely done and I can completely understand why he reacted the way he did, but then when we get to the last 4 pages, we're sent into the future that I didn't want to know about, and which I felt was focused on the wrong person.
I think it was an odd choice to end the story the way it did, but alas I can do nothing to change that. But it definitely solidified the rating for me.
I loved the way the story was told overall, and how moments of humor would come in to break the tension. The tone of the book is heavy, but it's never dark or grave, at some points it even feels light hearted. And when the English patient is telling his story, which is long and comes in parts throughout the book, it helps so much to have Hana or Caravaggio occasionally come into the picture and have them asking a question or something, which pulls you out of the story he is telling for a short second, relieving some tension, which helped to digest it much easier.
I also loved the setting of the book, and it made me realize how I have practically never considered how South Europe was affected by World War II, which is awful actually. Being in this deserted part of Italy was a great setting for the story, as well as intriguing for me personally, and it was incredibly interesting how there was an entire storyline about spies and Egypt and secret intelligence, which I would have loved to know more about, it was so fascinating!
Overall, it was just really really good, man.
