Thomas's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11713.The_English_Patient?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The English Patient" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166485607m/11713.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11713.The_English_Patient?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The English Patient</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4030.Michael_Ondaatje">Michael Ondaatje</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9768338?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars The English Patient is a most unusual book. I approached it expecting it to be a love story, but it is far more complicated than that. Set in Italy at the end of the second World War, there are four principle characters. The first is Hana, a nurse suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, better known at this time as "shellshock". During the war, her father died, her boyfriend died, she terminated her pregnancy, and she treated hundreds of dying young men. In her psychologically battered battered state, she took to caring for a nameless English patient suffering from terrible burns. These two were left alone in an Italian villa after both the Germans and Allies pulled out, leaving hundreds of unexploded bombs and mines in their wake.
 
 The next to arrive in this town is Carravagio, a friend of Hana's father. He too was suffering greatly, losing both thumbs after being caught as a suspected spy. At first he charms us with his stories of his previous life as a professional thief and a lover of women, but as we get to know him, he emerges as a morphine addict, hardly able to function without his fix.
 
 Then comes Kip, an Indian-born bomb-defusing expert who works for the British. He is very proper, formal, and self-sufficient, holding himself somewhat aloof from the others, but that does not stop a burgeoning love relationship from forming between him and Hana. He is just what Hana needs, allowing her to heal and lower all the emotional barriers she has erected.
 
 The other love story, if one can call it that, involves the English patient. After Carravagio administers a powerful dose of morphine to lower his defenses, the Englishman tells of the affair he had with a recently married woman, Katharine Clifton. Their relationship gnaws continuously at both of them, and they finally decide to break it off. But afterwards, Katharine's husband discovers their infidelity and attempts a murder-suicide. It is through these events that the Englishman came to have such terrible burns.
 
 Kip spends his days defusing bombs nearby, but one awful day he hears on his radio that the Allies have dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. As a man who has committed his life to disarming weapons and saving lives, this is far too much to bear, and he abandons the others, including the woman he loves. He returns to India to become a doctor, marry another woman, and start a family. What becomes of Hana, we do not know.
 
 The English Patient is certainly not a traditional love story, but perhaps a reader who could better relate to Hana's character could rescue the sentiments of love from the powerfully sad and disabling circumstances. I have found it quite difficult to make full sense of the book, and I am eager to view the cinematic interpretation of this story.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/649072?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Thomas's review
rating:

status: Read in December, 2007

The English Patient is a most unusual book. I approached it expecting it to be a love story, but it is far more complicated than that. Set in Italy at the end of the second World War, there are four principle characters. The first is Hana, a nurse suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, better known at this time as "shellshock". During the war, her father died, her boyfriend died, she terminated her pregnancy, and she treated hundreds of dying young men. In her psychologically battered battered state, she took to caring for a nameless English patient suffering from terrible burns. These two were left alone in an Italian villa after both the Germans and Allies pulled out, leaving hundreds of unexploded bombs and mines in their wake.

The next to arrive in this town is Carravagio, a friend of Hana's father. He too was suffering greatly, losing both thumbs after being caught as a suspected spy. At first he charms us with his stories of his previous life as a ...more The English Patient is a most unusual book. I approached it expecting it to be a love story, but it is far more complicated than that. Set in Italy at the end of the second World War, there are four principle characters. The first is Hana, a nurse suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, better known at this time as "shellshock". During the war, her father died, her boyfriend died, she terminated her pregnancy, and she treated hundreds of dying young men. In her psychologically battered battered state, she took to caring for a nameless English patient suffering from terrible burns. These two were left alone in an Italian villa after both the Germans and Allies pulled out, leaving hundreds of unexploded bombs and mines in their wake.

The next to arrive in this town is Carravagio, a friend of Hana's father. He too was suffering greatly, losing both thumbs after being caught as a suspected spy. At first he charms us with his stories of his previous life as a professional thief and a lover of women, but as we get to know him, he emerges as a morphine addict, hardly able to function without his fix.

Then comes Kip, an Indian-born bomb-defusing expert who works for the British. He is very proper, formal, and self-sufficient, holding himself somewhat aloof from the others, but that does not stop a burgeoning love relationship from forming between him and Hana. He is just what Hana needs, allowing her to heal and lower all the emotional barriers she has erected.

The other love story, if one can call it that, involves the English patient. After Carravagio administers a powerful dose of morphine to lower his defenses, the Englishman tells of the affair he had with a recently married woman, Katharine Clifton. Their relationship gnaws continuously at both of them, and they finally decide to break it off. But afterwards, Katharine's husband discovers their infidelity and attempts a murder-suicide. It is through these events that the Englishman came to have such terrible burns.

Kip spends his days defusing bombs nearby, but one awful day he hears on his radio that the Allies have dropped nuclear bombs on Japan. As a man who has committed his life to disarming weapons and saving lives, this is far too much to bear, and he abandons the others, including the woman he loves. He returns to India to become a doctor, marry another woman, and start a family. What becomes of Hana, we do not know.

The English Patient is certainly not a traditional love story, but perhaps a reader who could better relate to Hana's character could rescue the sentiments of love from the powerfully sad and disabling circumstances. I have found it quite difficult to make full sense of the book, and I am eager to view the cinematic interpretation of this story....less

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Thomas's books »