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Book Reviews Title Anil's
Ghost Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story In his first
novel since 'The English Patient', Michael Ondaatje
displays again the richness of imagery and the keen
emotional surety that are the hallmarks of his
writing. 'Anil's Ghost'
transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in
centuries of tradition, now forced into the late
twentieth century by the ravages of the civil war.
Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young
woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and
America, who returns to Sri Lanka as a forensic
anthropologist sent by an international human
rights group to investigate the organised murder
campaigns engulfing the island. What follows is a
story about love, about family, about identity,
about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock
the hidden past - a story propelled by a riveting
mystery. We
Say To have only the
space of a few hundred words to summarise a book as
intricate and complicated as 'Anil's Ghost' is not
just difficult, it's downright intimidating.
Ondaatje is a poet and a mystic - he cultivates his
words and feeds them until they are fat with
meaning and symbolism. Like every fragment of bone
examined by Anil Tissera, every image has import
beyond what it seems and every sensation leads to
an emotion. Nothing is what it seems. Arguably, 'Anil's
Ghost' could be perceived as a triumph of style
over substance, atmosphere over plot. But that
assessment does not allow for the way in which this
book gets under your skin. There's so much going on
that it takes a while to sink in. Also, the tone of
the book is dark and creeping but only so that it
can really give you a shock when it wants
to. There is a neat
quartet of characters to focus attention on.
Firstly, Anil is intelligent and headstrong but
also a little lost and displaced. She is surrounded
by a trio of men with the common bond of tragic
histories and jaded souls from the violence they
have encountered in their country - Sarath is the
archaeologist Anil works with, Gamini is a doctor
and Sarath's brother and Ananda is an alcoholic
painter. Tension arises when Anil begins to
question who she is able to trust as her knowledge
of the brutality around her increases. Comparisons with
Ondaatje's last book, 'The English Patient', are
inevitable and may not be entirely favourable. This
more recent offering does not necessarily have the
same depth or scope as that particular book. Some
of the sections were too short and left you wanting
to know more. However, the climax is as emotionally
gripping as any I have ever read. It is bitter,
angry and powerful. Review by: Rachel
Taylor |
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