The English Patient: Man Booker Prize Winner

If you like romantic language and poetic prose, you will enjoy this book. I honestly didn't understand what was going on for half of the novel because of its non-linear structure and breezy descriptions, that sometimes went on for pages and pages. The parts that I did understand, I enjoyed. There were rare moments of clarity when the beauty of the words actually found its way into my cynical, just-tell-me-in-plain-language brain and I felt emotion for the characters and their circumstances. Overall, it's a book that you must commit yourself to, or else when you put it down, you lose the will to pick it back up again.

Master story telling. Beautiful ensemble of characters. One of the rarities where a movie does justice to the book. The geography and spirit of the book lingers in you for years. I can see why Binoche named her daughter Hanna. Hard to shake off something so overpowering. Having said that every book does not meet every expectation of the reader. I read this with minimum expectation about the author as it was the first time I read Ondaatje. After reading this book I have immense respect to the author and his style of writing.

evocative of the war years in the desert, separated from civilization. A small enclave's social interactions. interesting description of bomb disarming. Writing brings reader into that place and time.