The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje · first published 1992
20% recommend60% neutral20% critical
With ravishing beauty and unsettling intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an Italian villa at the end of World War II. Hana, the exhausted nurse; the maimed thief, Caravaggio; the wary sapper, Kip: each is haunted by the riddle of the English patient, the nameless, burned man who lies in an upstairs room and whose memories of passion, betrayal, and rescue illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning
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The English Patient was a great one by Ondaatje. I've been meaning to pick up Warlight since it came out.
on “My Favorite Books 2020” ↗Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. It's the first book I read that left me awestruck with an author's ability to write beautiful, meaningful prose about wonderful characters doing fascinating things. Up until that point I knew some writers…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗…consequence than beauty? You are close to setting up a false dichotomy here. It isn’t those qualities or beauty, it’s those qualities and beauty. I first experienced it when I read Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. I was able to enjoy the book on the usual axes of plot, character, etc… but there was another level that had me rereading pages because every chapter, paragraph, and sentence felt perfectly constructed.…
on “Standard Ebooks' 1,000th title: Ulysses” ↗Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. When I read that book I found myself rereading pages because the prose was so beautiful. No book’s has come close to that for me. I didn’t know you could assembly words and sentences and paragraphs so…
on “To become a better writer, read as much as you can” ↗The English Patient is the first book that ever had me enjoying the prose as much as the story itself. As I was reading it I realized that even though I know all the words Ondaatje is using, I could never assemble them is…
on “My Favorite Books 2020” ↗…the amount of info that I put into it. Now, I will add anything from programming details (e.g. how do you get the number of characters in a Rust string?) to key facts from the books I read (e.g. in The English Patient, who does the patient have an affair with?). My review sessions only take 5-10 minutes a day, and my only regret is not starting this habit earlier (especially in school). It's incredibly gratifying to…
on “Spaced Repetition” ↗…Ossana: Zeke and Ned - Miller, Walter M.: A Canticle for Leibowitz - Oates, Joyce Carol: Zombie - O’Brien, Tim: In the Lake of the Woods - O’Nan, Stewart: The Speed Queen - Ondaatje, Michael: The English Patient - Patterson, Richard North: No Safe Place - Price, Richard: Freedomland - Proulx, Annie: Close Range: Wyoming Stories - Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News - Quindlen, Anna: One True Thing -…
on “Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? (2015)” ↗…novel “In the Skin of a Lion". The main character Patrick is a “searcher” looking for Small. Patrick’s daughter Hana and his close friend Caravaggio are main characters in Ondaatje’s subsequent novel “The English Patient”.
on “The mystery of the missing millionaire Ambrose Small” ↗Am I missing something? Wasn't English Patient by Michael Ondaatje?
on “The Father of All Secrets: John Le Carré’s Daddy Issues” ↗…subjective. I’ve seen people jerk themselves silly over Heart of Darkness and it is so ordinary. It is the epitome of “tell, don’t show”. I can’t believe something so mediocre is considered a classic. The English Patient - didn’t read it but the movie is pretty terrible. Exactly nothing interesting happens for 3 hours. Reasonable people can disagree, but at least don’t present these examples as universally acclaimed…
on “The Godfather almost never happened” ↗Because of The English Patient book (not film), I read “The Histories” by Herodotus. It is his only possession, if you remember.
on “My Favorite Books 2020” ↗I had an odd path to reading Le Carre novels - I first read The Pigeon Tunnel, his autobiography. After that I decided to read all of his novels... and then after the surprise ending in The English Patient, I told my partner I was done with them. I'd guess they're about 50% unhappy endings, 25% happy, 25% unresolved. Then a few weeks later I'd inevitably pick up a new one. All I have left to read now is…
on “The Father of All Secrets: John Le Carré’s Daddy Issues” ↗…etc than a film can, simply due to the medium. There are of course exceptions. Famously, Palahniuk has said the Fight Club film captured his intent better than his novel did. I also think film of The English Patient, which covers only a tiny section of what I consider a forgettable novel, is quite good, but even if you disagree I think almost anyone would say the film is better. And of course plenty of films aren't…
on “I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers (2021)” ↗