Jun 15, 2016 02:15 PM
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Absolutely stunning. The English Patient follows four characters and their brief but powerful months spent together in an abandoned Italian villa after World War II. The prose is lyrical. Ondaatje moves lithely through the inner voices of each character: Hana, the young Canadian nurse; Caravaggio, the thief; Kip, the sapper; and the mysterious eponymous English patient.
What I loved most about this book was seeing, especially near the end, how each character, though stranger to one another, had such a profound effect on each other's lives. The story really isn't all about the English patient. It's equally about each character in the story, and at one time or another you get to hear about their pasts and what motivates them.
This is a story about identity. About the identity you are expected to have, about the identity others perceive of you, and about self-identification.
I can see why this won the Man Booker Prize in 1992. Perhaps more of a 4.5 star for me, but for Goodreads I'd definitely round it up to a 5.
