Apologia of Micheal Ondaatje and The English Patient: Why Should Attention be paid to This Novel and Novelist?

The Novel The English Patient, is an epitome of its class, and deserves attention for various reasons. Firstly, Ondaatje highlights the subtleties of romance by using second-person narrative. Not all is known about the relationships in this novel, and therefore creates a sense of wonder and, more importantly, reader engagement. Also, this book is an excellent fusion of fictitious characters in real-world events. In this case it is World War Two. Ondaatje not only seamlessly incorporates an extrapolative interpretation of characters amidst the retreated territories of the Germans, but the empathy he elicits is extremely vivid.

The focal point of the novel is its unique structure: The narratives shift via large sections of dialogue, the flashbacks intertwine with each other, and the past is looped into the present and future. Ondaatje artfully ties these elements into a beautiful bow, whilst no gaps are present in the congruency of the past and present. As well, much repetition is used to convey the monotony of the period. Unique words and events and themes are used over again in varying situations, which create a sense of ‘return’. As one reads this novel, one will find that this sense of return is an important device used to portray insanity. It is also a subtle undertone used to support the other heavily-weighted themes of the book, such as deadness, madness and discovery. In fact, these themes might not be visible without the clever use of repetition. This ingenious syntax is most-likely an important cog contributing to the alleged acclamation of this novel.

As architecturally notable as the themes of this book can be, the subtlety of character development balances it. The malleability of the characters is a result of vagueness and ambiguity by design or otherwise. Ondaatje does not describe the appearance of a single character, and due to the madness of each character, their interactions are quite unorthodox. Either way, it allows for reader empathy, allows for the molding of characters. This is unique, and the strengths lie in the fact that there is room for the reader to personalize the characters, making this book more accessible and versatile.

The blend of style between exposition and romanticism is effective in expressing the insights into the human condition. Ondaatje successfully incorporates artistic description with personal insight and ideas of human nature. The novel deserves attention purely because one can learn so much about interaction with others in desperate times simply by enjoying the description in the novel. It is written like a poetic essay: there is always an underlying thesis to what Ondaatje is describing, which gives this novel weight, but does not impede the pleasure of reading it. In this case, this should be reason enough for someone to pick up this book because it is both educative and a joy to navigate.

On the other hand, Michael Ondaatje himself should be paid attention for many reasons. Most of his works are critically acclaimed, which means that even for the shyest reader, there is a good chance of picking up a good book when looking under ‘Ondaatje’. Also, this novelist has written other books following this successful archetype of multicultural interactions across time periods (such as Divisadero). His success is not the only thing to account when considering Ondaatje. His use of poetic devices-such as parallelism, metaphor, irony, and imagery-in prose deserves to be celebrated. He blends his stories together like a skillfully-masoned mosaic, fitting the pieces so that the separate stones create a beautiful picture, but the picture also represents something greater through theme. Also, another reason to credit the author more is the fact that he is still alive; he should be encouraged to keep writing so that the general public can continue to enjoy his works. After all, some of the greatest writers are deceased; ergo one should encourage a great writer of the current time to continue. He is a factory of imagination fuelled by his reading population, and should therefore be encouraged to continue to write and express.