The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje 

The English Patient is a novel written by Michael Ondaatje in 1992. The story line is set against a backdrop of World War II.

The story revolves around the main characters - The nameless English Patient, Nurse, Thief and Sapper, who are strikingly different in every way compared to each other, but the fate has brought them in this situation where they share some part of their lifetime together in a deserted, partly destroyed villa in Northern Italy. The story is disjointed, with starting somewhere and ending somewhere else, but always picking up the missing pieces of puzzle to bring out the beautiful end result. “The story tells the audience what they need to know when they need to know it” (2). This abstract way of describing the plot makes it very intriguing and keeps the readers hooked to the book.

Lost memory (or intentionally forgotten) of the English patient links the characters and explores their relationship in depth. After reading ‘Still me’ recently which I felt was very superficial when it came to exploring emotions and relationships, this book dived deeper into the intricacies of human relationship, how each person is connected to the other, and how past interlinks with present and the grim experiences of wartime Europe. It leaves readers perplexed about the futility of war. They say, ‘All’s fair in love and war’. But when love and war themselves are battling each other which one is going to win? It also gives an inkling to how loving and losing someone or something and the war experiences change an individual. It doesn’t give description of what the change is like, but it manifests in the way characters appear and behave without even knowing that they have changed. 

The writing in itself is beautiful, although I felt it was quite a hard book to read. I am not ashamed to say that I had to use dictionary at several points to understand some of the words. The words emerge like a whiff of wild scent, surround us, frustrate us, fascinate us and etch in our memory. Whole experience of reading this book left me melancholic and ruminating.

I have read about the film version as well, and cannot wait to watch it. I think there are some important variations compared to the book while keeping the main structure of the book alive. Nevertheless it will also be an interesting experience to actually watch the story and give faces to the voices in my head.

References

1. The English Patient- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_Patient )
2. The English Patient (1996)- Deep focus review (https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/the-english-patient/ )