Anil's Ghost: A Novel

Well done....confusing because the situation is confusing. Frightening, for the same reason.

This had been on my TO READ list for some time. I enjoyed the descriptions and the characters, the book just seemed poorly put together, jumping away from the plot for a long time to explore a sub-plot. Granted, that little offshoot eventually tied in the main plot, but I found it distracting and slightly confusing. A good read, but disappointingly not as good as I had hoped it to be.

a heart felt story about tough times in Sri Lanka, but at places story was fractured. Had much higher expectations from Michael Ondaatje's work. had a certain sleepy pace to it but failed to capture the imagination for too long.

"On her second morning they asked Anil to meet with forensic students in Kynsey Road Hospital. It wasn't what she was here for, but she agreed to it. she had not yet met Mr. Diyasens, the archaeologist selected by the government to be teamed with her the Human Rights investigation. There had been a message that he was out of twon and that he would contact her as soon as he returned to...more

"On her second morning they asked Anil to meet with forensic students in Kynsey Road Hospital. It wasn't what she was here for, but she agreed to it. she had not yet met Mr. Diyasens, the archaeologist selected by the government to be teamed with her the Human Rights investigation. There had been a message that he was out of twon and that he would contact her as soon as he returned to Columbo. The first body they brought in was recently dead, the man killed since she had flown in. When she realized it must have happend during her early-evening walk in the Pettah market, she had to stop her hands from trembling. The two students looked at each other. Sh never usually translated the time of a death into a personal time, but she was still working out what hour it was in London, in San Diego. Five and a half hours. Thirteen and a half hours. 'Is this your first corpse, then?' one of them asked?" - From Anil's Ghost The narrative of this book gives a great overview to one of the world's most exotic and tragic regions of the world - Sri Lanka. Ondaatje is a profound writer with a great understanding of circumstances.   hide

I found the ending unsatisfying.

Love, love love this book. All time favourite, Michael Ondaatje paints an honest, sutry picture of Sri Lanka. Ondaatje is my favourite author as it is.

Held my attention and seriously impressed for about 2/3rds. Then it lost it's haunting quality. Digressed into the indifferent pasts of some sub-characters - and when we returned to the main protagonists - the spell had been broken. An evocative last few pages went only some way to recapturing the initial potency.

i don't like Michael Ondaatje.

Stunning novel. Nothing more to say.