The English Patient
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Summaries
Add a SummaryThe English Patient tells the stories of four individuals whose lives come together at the end of World War II in an abandoned Italian villa: Hana, a 20-year-old nurse from Canada who seeks refuge from the proliferation of wartime death; Kirpal (Kip) Singh, a 25-year-old "sapper," or bomb dismantler, from India who is a member of the British Army; David Caravaggio, a friend of Hana's father who worked as a spy during the war and was severely disfigured while a captive of the Germans; and Hana's patient, a severely burned man whose identity is the mystery at the heart of this novel. Each of these characters finds him or herself far away from home, displaced by the war, and each of them finds a quiet refuge in the abandoned Italian villa to reconstruct their lives. While Hana and Kip eventually develop a romantic relationship, Caravaggio becomes more and more obsessed with the patient's true identity: Caravaggio believes that the patient may not be English, as everyone assumed, but a Hungarian who worked as a spy for the Germans. Interspersed into the story of the lives of these characters together in Italy are each character's clear recollections of the past, including the patient's hallucinatory memories of a torrid love affair, of desert exploration, and of friendship and betrayal. The novel becomes a collage of memories that explores themes of war, nationality, identity, loss, and love.
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Add a QuoteWhen we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our names, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself
When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our names, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself
When we are young we do not look into mirrors. It is when we are old, concerned with our names, our legend, what our lives will mean to the future. We become vain with the names we own, our claims to have been the first eyes, the strongest army, the cleverest merchant. It is when he is old that Narcissus wants a graven image of himself
"My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real countries are. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness." - Katharine Clifton
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Add a CommentOne of my very favourite books - the language is amazing.
Wonderfully poetic and thoughtful, The English Patient is a story of love and friendship in an Italian villa during WWII. Michael Ondaatje examines loyalty, lust, and cultural differences while drawing the reader into a beautifully complex novel.
Ondaatje sets the stage: It is at the end of WWII, and a badly burned airman is lying in an Italian villa which has been converted to a hospital. A Canadian nurse cares for him, and an old friend of her father arrives, also a sapper. The author takes the reader back into each of their lives in almost a dreamlike manner. It's good to just relax and let his artistry take us back and forth between towns and decades.
One of my favourite books! The images created by Ondaatje's words are powerful and poetic... at times I could almost hear and smell the scenes I was reading about. I tend to read e-books or library books, and am purging the number of books on my shelves, but my ratty old dog-eared copy of The English Patient, signed by Michael Ondaatje when he came to town for a reading, has pride of place and isn't going anywhere.
Ondaatje's strikingly poetic style can create beautiful images but ultimately distanced me from this novel's already thin story. In particular, I was often perplexed by Ondaatje's bizarre metaphors: "He knew he was now a king...it was strange to him. As if he had been handed a large suit of clothes that he could roll around in and whose sleeves would drag behind him." Still, if you value poetic lyricism more than story, you might love this book.
One of the best books I've ever read. The plot is unpredictable and the writing style is beautiful.
One of Ondaatje's most beautiful and accessible works.
one of my favorite books. and, remarkably, one of the few that i think has been really successfully adopted for the screen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116209/
A story that endures. Atmospheric. Got a bad rap as flavour of the month when the movie came out. New things to learn from it every time you read it.