The English Patient (1992)
Who wrote it?
Philip Michael Ondaatje (1943-; active 1962-,) born Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon.) Of Dutch-Sinhalese (Burgher) origin, he moved to London aged 10 to live with his mother, before emigrating to Canada (initially Montreal) in 1962, where he studied and began publishing poetry.
As well as the Booker and the “Golden Booker” (see below for more) he has won multiple awards, been honoured at a national level by both Canada and Sri Lanka, and had a new species of spider named after him (also in Sri Lanka.) He writes across multiple disciplines - poetry, prose, plays, non-fiction and has made films. Most famously, he worked closely with director Anthony Minghella on the multi-Oscar winning 1996 film adaptation of this novel.
What's it about?
The English Patient tells the story of four very different individuals who find themselves living together in abandoned villa in Northern Italy in the final months of World War II. Hana, a young Canadian nurse, has stayed behind at the villa (previously used as an improvised hospital) to care for the badly burned titular “English Patient,” who is also suffering from amnesia.
They are joined successively by David Caravaggio, a Canadian thief-turned-spy and family friend of Hana, and Kip Singh, a young Indian working for the British as a “sapper,” or military engineer specializing in bomb disposal. The story shifts perspective between the characters, with a romance unfolding between Hana and Kip as we also gradually learn about the English Patient’s back-story, which contains a tragic romance of its own.
What I liked
I found myself drifting in and out of engagement with this one, of which more shortly, but the parts that certainly did click were the ones that focused on Kip. The detailed bomb disposal descriptions are gripping and tense, and his overall character, as he comes to question his (and his countrymen’s) subservience to a British / western war effort and ideology.
Hana is also certainly a fascinating character. Her experience on the frontline as a nurse is graphically described, and at one point she suggests that commanders in the army should all be forced to do her job in order to understand the realities of war.
The exploration of wartime moral ambiguity and conflicted / shifting loyalties is brilliantly explored.
There’s a definite sense of place, both in the Italian villa and the desert scenes.
It feels like an intellectually heavyweight novel, which if I’m honest I hadn’t quite expected from its popularity (though no doubt the latter is more than anything inspired by the film, which I haven’t seen, but suspect isn’t quite so heavy on the deep analysis of Heroditus and Kipling? Maybe I’m wrong…)
I actually thought the ending, with Kip’s reactions to news of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was extremely powerful. I know elsewhere this has been seen as somewhat controversial, but to me it was moving and well-handled.
What I didn't like
As I say, I was somewhat torn on this one, and I suspect some of the bits that really resonated with others didn’t quite click for me. I feel like this would definitely be a novel that rewards multiple readings, and indeed close reading (as directly suggested in the text when they’re discussing Kipling’s Kim) - so I will caveat my overall score on this with the fact that it was my first read of this and one that I got through fairly quickly.
I struggled a little, if I’m honest, to engage with the central mystery of the English Patient’s origins, and then again to find anything much to empathise with in the romantic aspect of this story.
It didn’t help, for me, that these sections were narrated from the perspective of the title character, and in contrast with the realism and precision of the language used with Hana’s and especially Kip’s stories, tended (I am assuming deliberately) to reflect the character’s Morphine-sedated state, resulting in a language that is more poetic, symbolic and languid. Coupled with its more heavy nature, with frequent references to Heroditus and suchlike, these parts of the novel were less fun for me, even though there’s obviously incredible talent on display throughout.
Food & drink pairings
Condensed milk, sucked out of the tin!
The occasional scavenged bottle of Italian red
Morphine
Fun facts
1992 saw a definite further sense of deepening media discontent with the Booker, as its profile continued to increase, according to judge Victoria Glendinning:
“It was a vintage year for rent-a-sneer in the media. Prominent journalists whinged chauvinistically about “far-flung authors”, deaf to the explosion of energy from Commonwealth novelists, which has been the most significant feature of the Booker’s 40 years. The prize was “essentially trivial”, pontificated AN Wilson in contemptuous mode in the Evening Standard; and, enraged, I wrote to the Guardian letters page to contest Richard Gott’s clichés about the decline of the novel and what he called the “tokenism” of the inclusion of Michèle Roberts on the shortlist.”
It was also the second of three occasions in which the award was shared. I’ll be reading Sacred Hunger next week, but it sounds very much like another case of a lack of consensus on the jury. The tie came about as a result of the panel’s adoption of a “proportional representation” system with points allotted for first and second preferences. Not a clear-cut year, by any stretch, then.
Despite not even winning its own year outright, The English Patient was hugely popular (particularly after Minghella’s film), and won the 50th Anniversary “Golden Booker” award, the third such attempt to run a “Best Booker EVER” type award. The previous two were both won by Midnight’s Children, which strangely failed to make the judge-selected shortlist. The list was pulled together by judges selecting one book from each decade of the prize to date, Ondaatje representing the 90s of course. The others were:
In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul (1971)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (1987)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017)
Those five books were then put to a public vote, or popularity contest, which probably ruled out most of the options (Mantel aside, I guess) due to not being quite so well-read. The shortlist itself is an interesting one. You can’t help but think that Rushdie was omitted purely to avoid a third slam-dunk victory. I’m not going to argue with plaudits for the fantastic Moon Tiger, but it’s beat some hefty opposition from the 80s there. Naipaul from the 70s is fascinating too. Thoughts?
Many of the characters in The English Patient have some basis in reality. Notably the real identity of the the titular patient (though the original didn’t actually suffer burns during the war) and Kip’s mentor Lord Suffolk.
Vanquished Foes
Christopher Hope (Serenity House)
Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy)
Ian McEwan (Black Dogs)
Michele Roberts (Daughters of the House)
Another shared winner, of course, with Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger. I’ll be tackling that next, but do you have any other recommendations among the shortlist?
Context
In 1992:
Breakup of Former Yugoslavia continues; Bosnian War begins
Formal declaration of end of Cold War by Bush Snr and Yeltsin
LA Riots following acquittal of police officers involved in the Rodney King beating
European Union formed, with the Maastricht Treaty
Black Wednesday - British Sterling (and Italian Lira) forced out of European Exchange Rate Mechanism
John Major's Conservative Party wins a narrow victory in UK General Election
Bill Clinton defeats incumbent Republican George Bush Sr. in US Presidential election
Boutros Boutros-Ghali becomes UN Secretary General
Separation of Prince and Princess of Wales publically announced
First SMS text message
Sinead O'Connor rips up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live, protesting abuse in the Catholic Church
Paul Simon becomes the first major artist to tour South Africa after the Apartheid-era cultural boycott
Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert held at Wembley, London
Nirvana's Kurt Cobain marries Hole's Courtney Love
Launch of Cartoon Network by Turner Broadcasting
Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch
The Bodyguard
Wayne's World
Howard's End
Dr Dre, The Chronic
R. E. M., Automatic For the People
Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
Life Lessons
Something about ambiguity
Something about identity
I think I might need to give this one another read to really get to the bottom of this, if I’m honest
Score
7.5
This may seem unduly harsh, but on a first read it didn’t quite hit me as the uber-Booker that its plaudits would imply. It’s certainly beautifully crafted, gripping in places, and extremely thought-provoking, though.
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7 .
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
Next up
1992, take 2, as I get stuck into Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger, about which I have zero in the way of preconceptions, which is always a nice place to start.
