English Patient Review

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, starts off in an Italian Villa during World
War II. A nurse is set on a mission to help a patient who has burned past recognition. Living in
the villa is very dangerous, but Hana, the nurse, wants to stay and take care of her patient
anyway. The whole villa was covered with hidden mines and bombs that the Germans left. Hana
knew nothing about the patient but she figured he was English because of his manner and
speech. While taking care of the English patient, a friend of Hana’s dad, Caravaggio, finds out
where Hana is and goes to visit her in the villa. Caravaggio is a thief who arrives at the villa with
his hand in bandages. He was captured during the war for stealing and had his thumbs cut off to
prevent more of his trickery. Caravaggio sets himself on a mission to find out more about the
English patient; he doesn’t actually think that he is English. While they are all in the villa, a man
named Kip comes along. He was sent by the Allies to make the area safe enough to live in.
Kip stays with the others and learns much about them. He learns what happened to the English
patient, and he shares stories of his own. While living in the villa Kip falls in love with Hana but
leaves suddenly when he hears that the United States attacked Japan. Hana then writes a letter to her step mother about how her dad had died. He was burned past recognition, and Hana was very upset because she is a nurse that knows very much about burns and she could have easily helped him if she could have gotten to him.
This book was amazing. It started off really slow and it was hard to get into it, but once
you did, the story was astonishing. The English Patient starts off really slow and it’s mostly
about living in an empty villa and why they are living there alone. I didn’t really enjoy the
beginning very much because of how slow it was moving. But the writing that was done
throughout the whole novel was really good and I could tell the rest of it would be good as well.
I particularly liked the way the book was written. It switched from third person to first
person and you got a taste of the point of view from all the characters. This was a great way to
do it to show how other people felt and how they looked at what was happening around them. I
also liked the way the author put some of the parts together. Not only does Ondaatje write prose, but he also writes poems, and in parts of the novel you could tell that he has literary experience with writing poetry. The book was very descriptive and it always felt like you were there and you knew everything that was going on.
The end of the book was also really good but it was really depressing. Kip leaves Hana
because of something the United States did. I wasn’t very fond of this part because I really liked
Hana and Kip together. The other sad part of the end is when Hana writes a letter to Clara, her
step mom. She informers Clara of what has happened to her father and during this time she
reflects on how she could have helped him if she could have gotten to her. This part of the book
was really sad but it added to the book in such a great way and made it so much more fun to read.
The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, was overall one of the best books I’ve read.
Not only has it won prizes like the Booker Prize, but many people across the world have enjoyed
it very much. I highly suggest this book to anyone who might have the slightest interest. The
writing was great and very fun to read. There are many unexpected twists that happen and by
doing this, Ondaatje kept me interested.