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Rating:  -
I watched the film long ago and have enjoyed reading the book as its own piece. The characters are humbling and facing true tragedy and change in life. I was drawn in by where their intermingling would take them.
Rating:  -
This book was given to me on an airplane and I read it because I had nothing else to read. I had seen the movie and thought it was OK. The book however, I absolutly loved. The movie focused primarily on the English Patient, but the book was different in that you got to know each character quite intimately. They all were in the house for different reasons and each of them had very unique and intrieging backgrounds. I was sucked in immediately. Each charachter is developed and you are able to understand who they are and why. All of their strengths and weaknesses are revealed and they are quite vulnerable. If you are someone who likes to bond with a characters and watch them develop, this book is for you.
Rating:  -
Before I start I have to say that I loved the English Patient film. Minghella (director) manages to capture the beautiful romance between the characters and the stark beauty of the desert like no other director has been able to.
This book however, doesn't. Don't get me wrong. Ondaatje isn't a terrible writer. He's just not great. He tries very hard to be different (speechmarks are obviously passe?) and it shows. The English Patient novel doesn't really have any of the elements that make the movie so likeable. For starters, the book isn't coherent. It jumps everywhere. Some of the jumps are clear. Others are not. One gets the feeling that they're in there just for kicks, not for any real story-driving purpose.
Secondly...a LOT of Ondaatje's metaphors just.don't.work.
For example you have the ones that almost work:
"I don't think (Clifton) he loved the desert, but he had an affection for it that grew out of awe at our stark order, into which he wanted to fit himself - like a joyous undergraduate who respects silent behaviour in a library."
The ones that seem very high school:
"He (caravaggio) rides the boat of morphine. It races in him, imploding time and geography the way maps compress the world onto a two-dimensional sheet."
And the bewildering:
"He (Kip) knew he was now a king...it was strange to him. As if he had been handed a large suit of clothes rhat he could roll around in and whose sleeves would drag behind him."
This is not so say that Ondaatje doesn't paint some beautiful imagery as well. He does. But those instances tend to be few and far between. He also has the infuriating tendency to marr prefectly stunning imagery. For example, at the beginning of the book, he gives you this fantastic image of a young boy dancing next to a fire. Next thing you know, semen is being picked up from the sand. ?!? He does this over and over again.
I have never said this about any book/movie, but honestly, watch the movie as it is an infinitely better interpretation of the the book, than the book itself. The characters in the movie are likeable, and the story is complex and beautiful. The same, strangely, cannot be said of the book.
Rating: -
English patient has some interesting characters and the plot does have some intrigue, but please, an astounding book? Not. Too many little-finger-in-the-air chardonnays for the book review set. The author's prose is like reading a college literature student's overdone ramblings, he tries way to hard to be artful with words, which is really an inconsideration to the reader. The author's ability to be creative should be secondary to his ability to communicate. A lot of the metaphors don't work, simply leaving you puzzled. This book is like going to dinner with people who can speak the same language as you, but decide they will talk in another, company be damned.
Rating: -
While I loved the movie, the book left me dry and perplexed. Normally I prefer the book to the movie, but in this case, it was the other way around. The story jumps around a great deal and you live in the heads of Hana, Caravagio and Kip, but only graze upon those of Catherine and Almasy. If you expect to read about that great romance, better just rent the video because it's not in the book.
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