Warlight in Around the World in 80 Books

Aug 14, 2020 Terri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: awards-nom-man-booker, wwll-fiction, awards-nom-walter-scott

Fantastic book. Order it immediately if you love brilliant historical fiction.

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Oct 15, 2018 Steve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-spy, fiction

Warlight is definitely literary fiction, but it also operates as an upper level espionage novel. I have no trouble slotting this one up there with le Carre's A Perfect Spy and John Banville's The Untouchable. Like both those novels, Warlight is about more than I-Spy. It's about historical context and historical crimes, it's about individuals making choices, with consequences playing out years and decades later. To some extent, I think Ondaatje does this with all of his novels (the ones I've read Warlight is definitely literary fiction, but it also operates as an upper level espionage novel. I have no trouble slotting this one up there with le Carre's A Perfect Spy and John Banville's The Untouchable. Like both those novels, Warlight is about more than I-Spy. It's about historical context and historical crimes, it's about individuals making choices, with consequences playing out years and decades later. To some extent, I think Ondaatje does this with all of his novels (the ones I've read). I'm also a fan of The English Patient, but even at their best some of the early novels, filled with memorable and often odd moments, also struck me as uneven. It's like the poet was battling the novelist. Not so in Warlight, which I feel achieves a dark and beautiful balance. It still has its memorable moments. One I'll never forget is that of a female ethnographer (a relatively minor character) flying in a glider high above English Channel, monitoring the tricky weather on the eve of D-Day. What a strange and heroic image. It's the stuff of myth, but it's also rooted in fact. I remember thinking to myself only Ondaatje (both poet and novelist) could pull that off so wonderfully.

I'm aware I've not gone into the details of the novel itself. It's a bit like something from Dickens (1945 version) or perhaps J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun is closer. The story is about a brother (Nathaniel, age 14) and sister (Rachel, age 16) seemingly left in the care of a band of protective (and eccentric) criminals, by their parents (a distant and emotionally damaged father, and an intense but distracted mother ("Rose")). They are apparently heading to Singapore because of the father's new job assignment. World War 2 meanwhile is raging. The story is told through Nathaniel's voice, and it ranges back and forth through time and memories, supplemented further by what Nathaniel discovers years later, working in the archives (for British intelligence?) scrubbing evidence of British espionage wartime activities from the files. It's there he finds out more about his mother, and others. With the bits and pieces of what he knows, and what he remembers, he lets his imagination fill in the gaps. That act in itself is an act of poetry, as well as a necessary, if incomplete, remembrance. ...more

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May 16, 2018 Martha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites-of-2018

Surprisingly, I ended up loving this story. "War never ends." How true! ...more

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May 07, 2020 Erica rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, wwii

Through the prism of London at the end of WWII, Nathaniel evokes events, conversations, gestures, and memorable, rich characters in an attempt to gather & understand his life & form a more complete picture of his mother.
Ondaatje's lyrical, layered prose examines and makes sense of how this time period and the characters that inhabited it formed Nathanial's character. I think the structure of the book complements the subject matter, but I can see how some people may not like it.

"I knew how to f ...more

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Oct 29, 2018 Sunflower rated it really liked it

Shelves: e-books, fiction-read-2018

What kind of woman would leave her teenage children and disappear? With their father and mother both gone, the two teenagers are left in the care of two mysterious men, whom they call the Moth and the Darter. Years later, after his mother has returned, the narrator looks back on what happens and tries to make sense of it. That is essentially the plot of this book, but doesn't in any way do it justice. Beautifully written and managing to be mysterious, ordinary and compulsively readable by turns, ...more

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