The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje’s novel is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It is not a study or analysis of Herodotus’ history, and yet Herodotus’ spirit infuses virtually every page. Taking place during World War II, it explores the intertwined lives of four characters, including the unnamed English patient, who has survived the shooting-down of his plane, although he is severely burned.

He has nothing with him but his annotated copy of Herodotus’ Histories. I loved Anthony Minghella’s 1996 film adaptation of the novel, and it is no criticism of the film to say that it treats… show more.

Although it is not set in England, it is clearly about England, the English, and the war.

As with the other books mentioned so far, I read them upon release before later seeing the subsequent films—and sadly, much of the imagery from my mind has been overwritten with often brilliant cinematography, which is never as affecting as what you imagine. I just recall that, at the time, I saw ultra-vivid scenes from the page that transported me, and that became a prime aim of mine to replicate. 

I found the prose sparse but poetic, albeit by then, I’d already fallen… show more.

I love Michael Ondaatje’s prose; that is reason enough to read this book, but the Booker Prize-winning novel is also filled with mystery. Set in an Italian villa–the Villa San Girolamo, a real place–which is being used as a field hospital at the end of the Second World War and with a small cast of characters, it resembles a classic mystery story, but this is far more.

Each character’s history is gradually revealed to the reader, focusing on the "English Patient," a man burned and bandaged beyond recognition and unable to recall who he is, but whose memory returns to… show more.

Set amid the final days of the Second World Way in an abandoned Italian village, it tells the story of Hana, a nurse tending to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is something of a mystery. But with the help of a copy of Herodotus' The Histories, which the airman had on his person when rescued, Hana begins to piece together his life.

I felt the writing twists from moments of great beauty and clarity to whole sections that are almost impenetrable in their poetic depth. Switches of narrative viewpoint make the reader… show more.

This was the first novel written by Ondaatje I ever read, when I was in my early 20s, and it was a revelation. The story of Count Lazslo d’Almasy’s doomed love for the wife of a British archeologist in the Egyptian desert in the years before the Second World War is interspersed and pointedly contrasted with the story of the Canadian nurse, Hana, who cares for the severely disfigured Almasy years later in an abandoned house in France and Hana’s romance with a Sikh man from India who has been drafted into the British army as a sapper. Side by… show more.

I have to admit it was Anthony Minghella’s wonderful film of The English Patient that drew me to the book. With a crush on Juliette Binoche I was trying to figure out how her brilliant interpretation of the role of Hana the nurse who attends the bedbound war victim matched with the original character as created by Michael Ondaatje in his novel. Ondaatje, like Woolf, is a poet in prose, but he is also a poet in his own right and this talent transfers well into beautiful writing and an intriguing story. He is an artist using brush strokes of… show more.

I first read Ondaatje’s WW2 novel when it won the Booker Prize in 1992. I hated it. "Booker Prize, schmooker prize," I cried. I was at university studying English literature and I believed I knew more than the Booker judges. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, especially the title character. He was too enigmatic to be sympathetic. Having recently reread it (the same copy, actually) the story has taken on new life. It's interesting how one's perception can evolve and change with age and experience. It is Hana who resonates with me, and I now view the novel… show more.

The English Patient is one of the greatest novels of the Twentieth century. It weaves together stories of exploration, of the Sahara, of love, and identity, against the backdrop of the North African and Italian Campaigns in WWII. By turns tender and terrifying, the narrative is driven by the main character, the eponymous mystery man who – spoiler alert – turns out not to be an English patient at all, but a Hungarian, Lászlo Almásy, whose badly-burned face and body, following another plane crash in the desert, left him unidentifiable, until the arrival of someone who spied for British intelligence,… show more.

The beauty of craft and human labor is a theme that runs through Michael Ondaatje’s novels. His The English Patient is a creation as lovely as the paintings that the mysterious burned patient recalls during his convalescence. I’d never given much thought to WWII bomb defusal until I read the Kip section, but in the decades since, it’s never left my imagination. Draw a Venn diagram comprised of a compelling story, beautiful language, and the practical ballet of technical work—Ondaatje resides right at its center.

My mother was a nurse travelling with the Allies during the Liberation of Italy at exactly the time this story was set, so this book has a special place in my heart. Here the nurse is Hana, caring for a badly burned patient with no name in a crumbling Italian villa. As the patient recalls a passionate love affair from his past, Hana begins to fall for Kip, a Sikh sapper working on unexploded bombs left behind by the Germans. This is a beautiful and haunting story of the way that love can survive even the awful human suffering of… show more.