I found The English Patient to be a fantastic book, but one which is a bit emotionally taxing, particularly the utterly heart-rending ending, which I won't give away, but which tears the community of World War II survivors apart.
I know that for most people The English Patient conjurs up ideas about a great tragic love story between the main character--the English patient--and his forbidden love. For me, however, the love story fell a little bit flat. Maybe it was because I had heard so much about the romantic side of the narrative and perhaps had expected too much from it in terms of romance. And while the love story certainly is central to the plot surrounding the English patient, it's hardly the kind of romance for which anyone would hope themselves. This is not the kind of love story which will make young women fantacize about being Katherine and falling for the mysterious desert-obsessed English patient. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I didn't shed any tears over the end of their doomed romance, as I had found it rather uninspiring myself.
*note that I have not yet seen the film of The English Patient. My understanding is that the impact of the final scenes is significantly different, bringing more focus and attention to the love story, and for this reason the love story may be more powerful in the film, but I'm not in a position to judge.*
What truly touched me about the narrative of The English Patient was everything but the English patient. Hana was one of the most interesting characters in the novel, in my opinion, as was Kip. Now that I consider this, it's really not all that surprising given my interst in postcolonialism--particularly Indian literature--since Kip and his relationship with the other characters in the novel, all of whom are western define the final conflict of the narrative as a conflict between the west--symbolized in England--and the east--symbolized in both Japan and India. I'm afraid to go on about the powerful nature of this relationship and the consequences for the end of the novel because I don't want to give away too much about the end of the book. My hope, after all, is to inspire others to read great literature, not to make reading great literature unnecessary as I summarize it all. :)
Another very powerful relationship within the novel was the relationship between Hana and her father. I found Caravaggio a rather uninspiring character, but his role within the context of Hana's relationship with her father was crucial. I found that Caravaggio was most interesting and complex when he reminisced about his history as a friend of Hana's father and his memories of her as a child. Hana's final coming to terms with her relationship with her father, with her place in the war, and with the circumstances of her father's life was also extremely powerful, but again I don't want to give too much away.
Suffice it to say that The English Patient is one of those books which everyone ought to read, though be warned that while it is a deceptively slim novel it is also powerfully heavy and an incredibly serious novel. This is one which you won't forget any time soon, and which you will likely mentally chew over for a long time to come.
Read all of my book reviews on my blog at [...]
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