When thinking about World War II, the common image is one of death and carnage. There are soldiers lifting their rifles in defense against a terrible foe. These stories have been told ad nauseum and the idea of the hero has been etched into stone. However, Michael Ondaatje had a different idea of how to project WWII. In "The English Patient," he decides instead to focus on the human component of war, specifically that of a romance between four individuals trying to survive in a war-torn Africa. In a decaying landscape, a nurse takes care of the soldier known as the English patient, fragile from a plane crash. He slowly gains life and every day she patiently waits for him to get better, keeping him company in order to survive. As she does this, there is a greater sense of the world, creating something ethereal and spiritual.
This isn't a story written in the conventional narrative structure. While there is a story that forms, it is presented in-between the establishment of a mood. For Ondaatje, he is more interested in placing a mystic aura around the greater world. The crumbling buildings hide a history, the books hold deeper meaning. He starts the novel by discussing the English patient not as a person, but a landscape. The desert landscape around them holds this beauty, metaphorical mountains and rivers forming across his torso. It's an idea that runs through the rest of the story even as it includes flashbacks and lengthy passages referencing poetry and literature. This isn't a story about war, but the essence and passion for life.
As a result, some may be turned off from its approach to storytelling. It's not as focused on moving from beat to beat, but instead embracing a moment. There are lengthy passages where nothing happens but a friendly conversation. There's sensuous chapters where characters do nothing but lust over each other's bodies. So much of the novel is about intimacy and understanding that makes the eventual turn into a more conventional war novel a bit underwhelming. Still, when it's telling a story about human connection, it's powerful and something unique. It's nostalgic for something more breathtaking, where life has bigger meaning as everyone questions their place in the present. It's a story of time. It's a story out of time. It's beautiful.
"The English Patient" may be a meandering romantic drama at times that is too in love with language, but those willing to just embrace it will find plenty to like. Ondaatje has this gift for making reading novels into something sensuous. There's something greater that he's reaching for, and the quest to get there is enticing. What will he find in the invisible subtext? So much is there, asking us to stop and consider what has just been said and what it all means. War makes everyone vulnerable, making them recognize the value of life. This is one of the biggest celebrations of that idea, if just for how every idea overlaps in an impressive collage of identity and romance. What it lacks in satisfying arcs it more than makes up for in character development, allowing a sense of purpose to emerge not only in what we do for others, but for ourselves.
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