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The English Patient |
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Michael Ondaatje |
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Made famous by the Academy-Award winning movie based on the novel, the English Patient is amazing in its own right. It revolves around the present events and the memories of four people during the end of WWII. One is Hana, a nurse, who has agreed to stay with a severely burned patient as the rest of the hospital retreats to the safety of the coast. The burned man has no name, no identification, only memories to share with those also staying in the Villa San Girolamo. Caravaggio is an injured thief who worked for the Allies during the war and searched for Hana, the daughter of his best friend, until he ended up at the villa. He is also the one who discovers the English patient's real identity. And Kip, an Indian sapper--bomb defuser-- who falls in love with the young girl. All are enraptured by the English patient's story: one of love and loss and desert sands. Despite the flashbacks that often interrupt the story and are hard to follow (namely because the English patient does not know his own name) the prose is magical and magnificent. "From this point on in our lives, she had whispered to him earlier, we will either find or lose our souls." Made into an Academy-Award winning movie: The English Patient, starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Naveen Andews, and Colin Firth |
