The English Patient?

RicardoSmith

Any one read the The English Patient. Its written in an interesting way, and if you didn't understand the film, which didn't make a lot of sense to be honest. It will fill in all the gaps in the story line.

Aeneas

A recent trip to Egypt prompted me to read The English Patient. And to watch the film again on tv last night for the first time since I saw it on release ten years ago. Hated it then. Still hate it. Contrived, overblown, self conscious and pretentious. With dreadfully mannered acting by Fiennes, Scott Thomas and Willem Defoe. The only good thing is Binoche who lights up the screen whenever she appears and Andrews who plays the Sikh sapper, Kip. The book is only marginally better. Ondaatje can write and clearly he has done his research into desert exploration, defusing mines, the German retreat in Italy, Tuscany, Herodotus etc. But the book screams "look how clever I am", and, for what purports to be a story about intertwined relationships it is emotionally empty and unconvincing. The climactic moment when Kip rejects Western values after hearing about the atomic bombing of Japan does not ring true. The best thing about the book is that it sent me back to Herodotus. Now there's a man who could tell a story.

Esmereldina

Aeneas wrote:

A recent trip to Egypt prompted me to read The English Patient. And to watch the film again on tv last night for the first time since I saw it on release ten years ago. Hated it then. Still hate it. Contrived, overblown, self conscious and pretentious. With dreadfully mannered acting by Fiennes, Scott Thomas and Willem Defoe. The only good thing is Binoche who lights up the screen whenever she appears and Andrews who plays the Sikh sapper, Kip. The book is only marginally better. Ondaatje can write and clearly he has done his research into desert exploration, defusing mines, the German retreat in Italy, Tuscany, Herodotus etc. But the book screams "look how clever I am", and, for what purports to be a story about intertwined relationships it is emotionally empty and unconvincing. The climactic moment when Kip rejects Western values after hearing about the atomic bombing of Japan does not ring true. The best thing about the book is that it sent me back to Herodotus. Now there's a man who could tell a story.

I liked this book a lot. I read it about 6 or 7 years ago, so as always (:o ) I can't remember too much about it I'm afraid. I remember liking the style of writing a lot, and thinking that it created quite a different mood to the film, which focuses on the simple romance and drama of the story (as films like this tend to do I know...) while the sparse, elegant writing of Oondatje gave it a different feel altogether...

Though as I said, I don't really remember the book that much, so all that could be the product of my overactive memory/imagination