If I had to give ratings at random moments during this book, they would have been different every time, but all in all, four stars is an accurate representation of how I feel about this novel now I am done with it.

I knew Ondaatje's style from In the Skin of a Lion, so I knew what to expect: not a lot of dialogue, and not a lot of structure or plot. That was essentially true for The English Patient as well. Normally I wouldn't like that, but in this case it was fine, because (parts) of this writing are just so beautiful. You just need to accept that it has no clear structure or purpose, that the characters can be quite weird sometimes (Hana: I love the English patient *five seconds later* never mind!) and that you can't understand everything about the narrative or the characters or anything, basically.

There were some chapters or scenes I didn't understand or like very much. But once I got past all that, it was good. There are some scenes which are amazingly beautiful, with a vivid imagery, in which everything fits completely.