Reviews tagging 'War'

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

5 reviews

thelibraryskeeper's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I really struggled to get through this one. I did not care for the style in which the novel is written. It's not a particularly difficult novel, but written the way it is intensifies the amount of attention needed to get through it.

At the end, my take away from this was that we are all warring within ourselves. Within and with the world we find ourselves in. Each of the characters is dealing with internal struggles and external. The book wasn't particularly impactful in my opinion. On to the next one.
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booksandbabble's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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frankyreadsbooks's review against another edition

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Super dry descriptions of bomb defusings and confusing descriptions of *eggplants* (the body part).
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yvespiders's review

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Opening this novel is like entering a dreamlike state where you have to pay attention to every detail. The writing is poetic and beautiful, though it took me longer to finish this because I sometimes needed a break from the emotionally devastating descriptions and traumatic details. 

The format is unusual and it can be quite a dense read. But once  I got down to the core of Ondaatje's message, I found this novel to be incredibly powerful and timely. It is scary how relevant the subject matter of nationalism is to our world today.
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cstein's review

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adventurous emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Ondaatje's descriptions of the desert/desert communities and the sappers' work were, for me, the most compelling aspects of this novel. I was also charmed by the family/community the characters build within Villa San Girolamo. Several times, Ondaatje employs an original and effective literary device in which his characters recount the conclusion of a story (and the reader is confused) before they immediately recount the events leading up to the conclusion (so the reader's confusion is resolved). Interesting commentary on the role of race in war and in the historical and future American use of nuclear bombs. Caravaggio starts as such an intriguing and even funny character, but Ondaatje largely ignores him in the later stages of the book. The ending is abrupt and felt somewhat unresolved.
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