Anil's Ghost

by Michael Ondaatje | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0375724370 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingAzukiwing of Miami, Florida USA on 10/19/2012
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingAzukiwing from Miami, Florida USA on Friday, October 19, 2012
Booker Prize-winner Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka, and he has chosen to set his powerful and resonant new novel in that country during its gruesome civil war in the mid-1980s.

Anil Tissera, a native Sri Lankan, left her homeland at 18 and returns to it 15 years later, an accomplished forensic anthropologist and part of an U.N. human rights commission. Sarath Diyasena, a archeologist with a mysterious past, is assigned by the government to be Anil's partner. Together, they discover that a skeleton among ancient bones in a government-protected sanctuary does not belong there. Forensic evidence shows it to be a recently killed young man, his skeleton moved there to conceal the murder. Anil, indignantly and somewhat naively, set out to identify the victim and document the murder, unknowingly endangering her life and Sabath's. Can she be like, what Sabath's brother says, "The American or the Englishman gets on a plane and leaves. The camera leaves with him. He looks out of the window at Mombasa or Vietnam or Jakarta, someplace now he can look at through the clouds. The war, to all purposes, is over. That's enough reality for the West... Go home. Write a book. Hit the circuit." Can she, or is she in too deep?

It's a beautiful book, the old traditions of Sri Lanka woven together with the brutal civil war that I honestly knew nothing about for a rich and complex story. I remember being spell-bounded by some passages in The English Patient, and the same magic in here, writings that transport me to another time and place, such as the one about dotting the Buddha's eyes.

Will reserve for the Medicine Chest bookbox.

Journal Entry 2 by wingAzukiwing at Bookbox in Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Released 11 yrs ago (2/19/2013 UTC) at Bookbox in Book Box, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Putting in the Medicine Chest Bookbox.

Journal Entry 3 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, March 3, 2013
I'm leaving this in the bookbox because I've already read it, via an audiobook version, but wanted to add my comments to its travels:

While this political/forensic/archaeological mystery definitely presented a clear and fascinating view of Sri Lanka - including the appalling results of the warring factions and the lush details of the forests and temples - I found myself unable to feel very involved in the story. Not because of the various atrocities (though they were very nasty at times - not least the veiled suggestion of what Anil herself suffered near the end of the story) but because the story just seemed to meander from memory to memory, sub-plot to sub-plot, with very little ever coming to a head. [Since I felt much the same way about The English Patient perhaps this tells me I'm not cut out to be a fan of Ondaatje's work {wry grin}.] There are marvelous elements, and unforgettable scenes, but a very frustrating lack of... resolution? Not that I was expecting a happy ending or a triumphant vindication, exactly, but it felt as if somebody just said "OK, stop now". Still, it's a lush and atmospheric story that made me feel as if I were visiting exotic places, something that not all authors succeed at...

Journal Entry 4 by quietorchid at Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Thursday, April 25, 2013
Arrived with the Medicine Chest. Looks interesting.

Journal Entry 5 by quietorchid at Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Thursday, June 6, 2013
Ondaatje's work is always challenging. He is at his best at an absolute removal from his subjects. In uninteruppted focus on disparate characters that are thrown together we see them emerge from their isolation as seperate flames from the background. Sparsely, individually, and lyrically they can call to us.

This work is set in Sri Lanka, and involves an ex-pat forensic anthropologist, Anil, returning to her country to try to document the ungoing civil rights and torture that is occuring. She meets up with an Archeologist, his brother a Doctor, and a Painter turned laborer. What follows is an atmospheric and unreal exploration of the numbness that occurs when all hope is lost, and the unliveable becomes the norm. Anil goes home with her evidence, shattered by the experience, but leaving the others to bear the cost of truth.

Ondaatje left Sri Lanka in 1962. I think the author's struggle to get the necessary distance for his writing technique to work was harder to achieve than in his other works.

Journal Entry 6 by quietorchid at Saint Paul, Minnesota USA on Thursday, June 6, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (6/6/2013 UTC) at Saint Paul, Minnesota USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent off for the 2013 Intl Canadian Literature Sweepstakes.
Enjoy!


P.S. If the book is too good to read and release, that's okay, you can keep it, just let me know that it's found a good home!



Journal Entry 7 by Pooker3 at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Book arrived yesterday in the middle of a frustrating work day. So I was happy to have something to look forward to! Thank you quiteorchid!

As I proud Canadian CanLit geek, I've read lots of Michael Ondaatje. Some of his poetry just delights me. His novels on the other hand - with some of them I'm totally enamored and with others I'm like the burnt out lightbulb in the Christmas light string, just not getting the brilliance.

I haven't read Anil's Ghost. So we'll see how I do. :)

Journal Entry 8 by Pooker3 at Canadian Tire in Kenora, Ontario Canada on Saturday, July 6, 2019

Released 4 yrs ago (7/6/2019 UTC) at Canadian Tire in Kenora, Ontario Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Somebody (not me) forgot to bring their shorts for a weekend at the lake. So we headed into Kenora thinking Mark's would be a likely bet. Mark's was gone!

Just so the trip would not be for naught, I released this book at "the tar" next door. It was released for the Canada Day Release Challenge in celebration and promotion of Canadian books and authors. Enjoy!

To the finder of this book:
I hope you enjoy your new read.

Welcome, also, to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know, return it to any Little Free Library or even release it into the wild. It is all up to you.

If you make a journal entry (you can do it anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.