Customer Reviews

Anil's Ghost

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Anil's Ghost is set on the island of Sri Lanka against the backdrop of the civil war turmoil of the mid-1980s and 1990s. Here, three opposing groups battle for control: the government, the anti-government insurgents in the south and the separatist guerrillas in the north.

The book centers around the character of Anil Tissera, a thirty-three year old Sri Lankan born forensic anthropologist sent to her homeland as a United Nations human rights investigator whose mission is to explore various "disappearances," i.e., murders.

Her government-appointed partner is Sarath Diyasera, a forty-nine year old government representative who gives Anil little reason to relax. Although Sarath is capable of reconstructing a vibrant picture of the past based on the flimsiest of clues, his motives and alliances seem more than slightly questionable. Sarath, however, is often misunderstood, for this is a man who understands the moral complexities of the modern world in their historical context, who knows what can and cannot be done and who views "truth" as the ambiguous statement it is.

While excavating a site in a sanctuary containing nineteenth century bones, a skeleton of recent date is unearthed, one whose remains also appear to have been moved twice.

This unidentified body is given the name, "Sailor," and provides the catalyst for Anil and Sarath's search, a search which leads to the introduction of several engaging secondary characters: Palipana, an interpreter of ancient ruins, seventy-six, blind and living in a grove of ascetics; Gamini, Sarath's younger brother, a dedicated doctor and participant in a tragedy whose work consists of patching up the war's innocent victims; and Ananda Udagama, a drunken miner and artist whose skill and genius allowed him to paint the eyes of the statues of Buddha, a ritual that brought the statue to life.

Ondaatje threads his way between past and present, giving us some stories that relate to the plot and others that do not. Some major plot lines and characters are dealt with far too swiftly and summarily as Ondaatje takes off on yet another political tangent. At times, the characters, who aren't developed enough to form a connection with, seem to be completely forgotten until Ondaatje suddenly makes an abrupt turn and brings us back to the story at hand.

Those expecting the lush, dense prose of The English Patient will find themselves sorely disappointed. Yes, the trademark Ondaatje poetic prose does remain (though toned down) and it is gorgeous, but it is simply not enough to sustain us in what should have been a larger, more fleshed-out novel.

Anil, herself, seems out of place in this book, for she is essentially a Westerner. Although born in Sri Lanka, she is not of Sri Lanka and does not share the same values and ideals as those with whom she interacts. Had Ondaatje concentrated only on those who had lived their lives amid the fire and flames of this island paradise, the book would have proven far more compelling and true.

The final chapter, however, is beautiful and touching, in part because it deals not with Anil or the crime with which she became obsessed, but with Ananda and the spirit that is truly Sri Lanka.

Ondaatje has done a marvelous job of dissecting the secrets, identities and memories that form the intricate layers of Sri Lanka and its tumultuous past. His quest seems to have been a personal one, one that was both essential and compelling. It is just not quite as essential for the reader.

Many have said they are disappointed with the book, but have hinted the writing is far subtler than in earlier books. That's exactly it.

While there are a few pages of less-than-stellar prose (for a 300-page book, it is extremely tight), Ondaatje has pulled off some amazing things here. Foremost is his ability to link the landscape with the human. From diamond and plumbago mines to the ruins of palaces to the inscription filled caves that once housed ascetic monks, the author lets the geography and conflict of Sri Lanka reveal the geography and conflict of being.

And just as the characters hoard individual inscriptions (Warning: WHEN IT RAINS, THESE STEPS ARE BEAUTIFUL or more brutually "In diagnosing a vascular injury, a high index of suspicion is necesary."), you'll come across sentences, paragraphs, pages you'll want to commit to memory.

Finally, the experience of discovery, the delving and decryption involved in reading the book is so, well, lovingly mirrored in the character's investigations (of self, memory, identity) that you read with the sense that you are doing something important, that you are ferreting out a deep and wonderful secret about the human experience. That you, like the artists and doctors in the story, are revealing pain only to heal it, figuring the dead only to honor and remember them.

Read, I implore you, this wonderful, horrible, beautiful book.

I truly enjoyed reading Anil's Ghost and was suprised at some of the negative feedback people had about the experience of reading the book. Some other readers have called the book boring and couln't even finish, but I had a very different experience. I appreciated the slow, careful time Ondaatje took to develop his characters and to tell his story. The lack of "fast paced" plot made me notice and enjoy the revealing details of the book and the rich words used to describe Shri Lanka. I thought Anil was a fascinating character, though there were times in the book where I wanted more of her, especiallly on a more emotional level. The book is dealing with many kinds of intensities and it can be difficult to process. The intensity of the political situation in Shri Lanka is intertwined with the complexities of various relationships. I started reading this book expecting it to be like The English Patient. This was quite an error and I was pleasently surprised. Don't read Anil's Ghost if you are interested in a book with a quick revealing plot and defined characters. The plot slowly reveals itself to create a book that is intriguing, powerful and well worth reading.

This is a really great book. However, those looking for a repeat of The English Patient may be disappointed. While the writing style is very similar (Ondaatje's poetic descriptions) the organization is much clearer and easier to follow. It isn't until 2/3 of the way into the book that he begins to mix events around. But it works! The characters are as fascinating as those we know from The English Patient, but the plot is far more interesting, and his descriptions near sublime. This book is poetic, disturbing and uplifting all at the same time. One can imagine that this is a topic that is closer to the heart of the author, but no matter what, it comes through as a thoughtful, inspired work of art.

Although there are many reviews of "Anil's Ghost" already posted, I felt compelled to write another on the grounds that many reviewers appear to have not fully appreciated Ondaatje's goals in this book. I share the opinion of some of the other readers, that this is Ondaatje's best work to date. In my case I'll go farther and say this is the best novel I've read in several years. Some people seem to be finding the book dull, and it is certainly not standard best-seller fare. It is subtle, allusive, and not driven by plot. Although it concerns the civil war in Sri Lanka, it is not *about* it. Although it concerns the search of a forensic anthropologist for the origin of a possibly-murdered skeleton it is not about that either. Readers who approach the novel as mystery are bound for disappointment, because this is not a novel of revelation, but one of concealment. It would perhaps be best to consider "Anil's Ghost" as a poetic meditation on the nature and search for truth. As it examines truth from many angles, it comes to no pat conclusions, which may also be troubling for some readers. Instead it uses the compelling characters and dramatic structure to illustrate the complexity of truth, while not absolving us of the duty of searching for it. The specific setting is necessary for the development of the themes, which are, nonetheless, universal. The prose is perhaps not as intensely beautiful as that of "The English Patient," but that is appropriate for the subject matter. Ondaatje has written a story of torture and murder which is neither thoroughly dark, nor simplistically heroic. Instead he gives us a multilayered truth in which the deepest darkness still allows a space for hope. It is a subtle, brilliant, stunning book.

To appreciate Anil's Ghost, is to appreciate the subjectivity of people's experiences in war, in love, in anything -- Ondaatje produces a wonderful story where truth is running water and the characters are trying to determine that boundaries of its stream.

Anil Tissera, the Western educated forensic anthropologist is sent to Sri Lanka, with a United Nations mandate to discover more about the vast "disappearances" during the civil war. Sarath Diyasera is her older (wiser?) government-appointed partner. Through their eyes is laid a story of discovery and exploration, not in the action-movie sense, but in a more realistic sense. We feel the weight of time and history -- and its effect on those who experienced the war. This is not a simple book and it makes no attempt to be clean about the quest for the identity of a skeleton that Anil and Sarah unearth. As with other Ondaatje books, the tangents off the main story line provide us with more subjective experience to help color the difficulty of bringing the truth (ever elusive) out to the world.

The poetry of Ondaatje's prose is outstanding, and the images very colorful. The diversions from the "story" are essential in the way that daydreams are essential -- they add rather than subtract. While it does give a fragmented and disjointed feel to the story, I personally found it fascinating. Ondaatje seems more focused in his prose in some senses (versus his earlier books), while at the same time he seems to include more "stories" -- which make it hard to put down the book and pick it up again. The subtleties seem to last for pages, and the harmony of the different stories is hard to pick up on after leaving the book for a day. My advice is to not ask "why?" too many times when reading -- just keep reading and you'll find that Ondaatje has placed his (poetic) pause in a different place and time.

I found it beautiful, personal, striking and subjective -- who'd want to read an objective story of human rights abuses, anyway?

Anil's Ghost sounded great: complicated characters, exotic locale, twisting plot, puzzle to be solved. However, the characters are all so estranged (and to be frank, strange) that it is difficult to care about them. Instead of pulling together to weather the strife of civil war, these characters, and the communities they inhabit, withdraw and hide from danger and uncertainty.

Michael Ondaatje succeeds in making me feel a bit of the anxiety and uncertainty of the Sri Lankan experience, but at the cost of engaging me in the story. I got the point, but don't want to do anything with it.

Ondaatje can sure turn a phrase, and he can capture a mood like no one else. If you're a serious word person, who reads for love of language, or if atmosphere alone is enough for you, don't miss this novel. On the other hand, if you're a recreational reader who enjoys a linear story, Anil's Ghost isn't for you.

In his latest novel, 'Anil's Ghost' Ondaatje takes us back to his native Island Sri Lanka, through a labyrinth of a journey full of imagination, creativity and originality. Although Ondaatje brings several characters whose lives are engulfed with a bloody civil war and its aftermath he does not provide any political solutions. His ability to examine the pasts with the present provides sufficient insights into the complexities of characters he has wonderfully portrayed in this excellent novel rich with Ondaatje's special prose full of metaphors and images. The most striking feature of this novel is how Ondaatje has combined the history, art, archaeology, folklore of this fascinating country which is at a cross-road today. Anyone who has some interest in Sri Lanka or anyone who had links with this lost paradise must read this novel to understand the complexities of a civil war and above all to appreciate the original work of a great writer.

In summary, Ondaatje tells us a fascinating story of an island where.." the darkest Greek tragedies ..[are] innocent compared with what is happening..." there.

Just having finished reading "Anil's Ghost" I am still feeling oppressed by the images of the Sri Lankan civil war that are being evoked again and again throughout the book. Indeed, it may not be a far-fetched idea to interpret "Anil's Ghost" as a book written in order to denounce the atrocities of war, given the importance the author attaches to the subject by making it the book's recurring theme.

Actually, the story is quite multi-layered: The reader's attention gets focussed mainly on Anil Tissera, a forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka but educated abroad, who is sent back to her home country by an international human rights group. Her job will be to work together with local officials in order to help them discover the perpetrators responsible for the large-scale killings that took place on the island. Once she has arrived in Colombo, Anil is instructed to team up with the archaeologist Sarath Diyasena, and their efforts to identify one particular skeleton take them on a trip across Sri Lanka and its most scenic - albeit now partly ravaged - spots.

As he did in "The English Patient", Mr Ondaatje in "Anil's Ghost", too, along the way introduces the reader to various subjects apparently disconnected from the main plot. Among the topics dwelt upon this time are archaeology, research techniques of forensic anthropology and Sri Lankan Buddhism. However, all these expositions are effectively dwarfed by the omnipresent descriptions of war and its horrible consequences. What's more, I found the main characters such as Anil or Sarath rather difficult to assess if not downright unapproachable. This is why I should call "Anil's Ghost" a powerful and compelling book, but one that is hard to digest and that I will probably never come to love.

This book is Michael Ondaatje's portrayal of passion for his native Sri Lanka. It is a brilliant maze of ethnic war, archaeology, forensic science, Buddhist art and culture, all woven into the story of Anil Tissera. A young forensic pathologist who shares her cultural and filial ties with Sri Lanka but not its' political and social affirmations. Ondaatje cleverly spins the web of a war that devours its people, and drives Anil into a deep dark pit of ethno-political uncertainty.

Anil's only aim is to use her forensic skills to prove a silent killing. While she digs for the truth, she discovers her cultural and nationalistic roots. Sarath Diyasena the archaeologist, seeking the same truth through the eyes of the historical past and his brother Gamini, the doctor, the voice of reality, who dissolves history and science for a more gory blood-stained truth. The thread that links them is the passion for their profession. This driving passion is their survival in an unworkable system.

In his poetic genius, Ondaatje describes modern day Sri Lanka as it is. A must read.