Michael Ondaatje - Anil's Ghost

Pros: oblique yet surprisingly linear exposition, language, understanding
Cons: Anil herself remains rather abstract a character

I was so enthusiastic about Ceylon-born Toronto poet Michael Ondatjee's 1976 novel about early jazz trumpeter Buddy Bolden in the red-light district (Storyville) of New Orleans before the First World War, that I bought and gave away at least half a dozen ...

Pros: The rich use of language, the local flavor, sharp eye to detail
Cons: n/a

I have seen the movie The English Patient and I have liked it enormously: the movie was based on a novel by Michael Ondaatje. But this - Anil's Ghost - is the first Ondaatje novel I got to read, set in contemporary Sri Lanka beset...

Pros: scope, depth, nuance, texture, content
Cons: none

We are not told precisely why Anil Tissera, 33, a forensics specialist and long-time expat, knived her three-year friend Cullis Biggles Wright, writer (who had fallen in love with her taped voice), in the arm at the Una Palma Motel in Borrego Springs...

Pros: Evocative and lyrical
Cons: none worth mentioning

It's not a story about a singular ghost, instead it has a layering of ghosts. Some are real, some are illusionary, and others are metaphorical. It tells of the ghosts remaining buried in the soil, ghosts that hide in the violence, and there are even...

Pros: Detail about Sri-lanka, customs, country.
Cons: Doesn't live up to Michael Ondaatje previous masterpieces.

I bought Michael Ondaatje with great anticipation having read both ‘In The Skin of a Lion’ and ‘The English Patient’ previously and thoroughly enjoyed them both. In particular the fusion of lyrical language, like a sing song accent within the prose gave...

Pros: Easy to set down.
Cons: Stucturally flawed.

Entering a world of intrigue and insecurity, a young woman, Anil, returns to her native land after years of renown and research in the United States and England. With a well-wound plot, Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost is a distanced, unemotional looks at...

Pros: Very well written.
Cons: None

A fictional tale of the efforts of one Anil Tissera toward the unearthing of atrocities in Sri Lanka during one short period of time in that country's (recent) terrible civil war history, and her relationship with two Sri Lankan men, brothers Sarath and...

Pros: Rich, deep & disturbing
Cons: Not "easy"--actually not a "con" but a limitation

When my Father's Day B&N gift certificate arrived I was stumped as to which book to spend it on. None of the current best sellers came close to grabbing me and I already own most of Cormac McCarthy's great works. Then I remembered reading about...