This is an excellent guide to Michael Ondaatje’s best-loved novel. It features a biography of the author, a full-length analysis of the novel, a comparison of the novel to the film, and a great deal more. If you’re studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you’ll find this guide informative and helpful. This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years – from ‘The Remains of the Day’ to ‘White Teeth’. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Study Aids Get Chic
Concerned about keeping up at the book club? Stuck for something to say when dinner party talk turns to Zadie Smith? Or no time to read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin before the movie comes out? Never fear, cool new study aids are here in the form of Continuum Contemporaries....The Novel Approach, a series of handy readers’ guides to contemporary fiction. Launching in September, with further waves in January and May 2002, they’re much slicker than the frumpy cheat-aids of yore, including everything from website links to review buzz, and deliberately featuring new novels such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Shipping News, Trainspotting, and even the Harry Potter books." —Time Out (London)
"A brilliant idea—short, perceptive books which tell you what you need to know about some of the most vibrant and challenging writing around today—a bit like having a reading group in your pocket."—Ian Rankin
"The series comes as near to squaring various circles - popular / academic, 'good read' / 'classic Lit', novel / film of the book as any I know. And at best it goes a fair way towards reshuffling those categories and redrawing the boundaries. With the first volume, I was relieved. After two or three, I was hooked.
The books are invaluable for gathering out-of-the-way or ephemeral comment from TV and radio interviews and the web as well as from literary reviews.
Refreshingly upfront and up-to-date…
Given the space, there are remarkably balanced film/novel comparisons of the most well-known examples…
An important feature is the fully referenced bibliographies, including reviews and copious website addresses - the latter ranging from fanzines and authors' and publishers' own sites to academic discussion lists and online journals.
In method as in subject matter, these guides move freely on the interface between print culture and multimedia. Highly finished and pleasantly handleable as books in their own right, they gesture accommodatingly to both words and worlds beyond.
Taking the series as a whole, it also confirms two things: that narrative nowadays is generically highly hybrid and increasingly cross-media; and that an understanding of the processes of writing and reading 'contemporary classic' (or at least 'currently famous') fiction cannot be separated - yet must be distinguished - from the processes of making and marketing books and films."
— The Times Higher Education Supplement, May 31, 2002
Concerned about keeping up at the book club? Stuck for something to say when dinner party talk turns to Zadie Smith? Or no time to read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin before the movie comes out? Never fear, cool new study aids are here in the form of Continuum Contemporaries....The Novel Approach, a series of handy readers’ guides to contemporary fiction. Launching in September, with further waves in January and May 2002, they’re much slicker than the frumpy cheat-aids of yore, including everything from website links to review buzz, and deliberately featuring new novels such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Shipping News, Trainspotting, and even the Harry Potter books." —Time Out (London)
"A brilliant idea—short, perceptive books which tell you what you need to know about some of the most vibrant and challenging writing around today—a bit like having a reading group in your pocket."—Ian Rankin
"The series comes as near to squaring various circles - popular / academic, 'good read' / 'classic Lit', novel / film of the book as any I know. And at best it goes a fair way towards reshuffling those categories and redrawing the boundaries. With the first volume, I was relieved. After two or three, I was hooked.
The books are invaluable for gathering out-of-the-way or ephemeral comment from TV and radio interviews and the web as well as from literary reviews.
Refreshingly upfront and up-to-date…
Given the space, there are remarkably balanced film/novel comparisons of the most well-known examples…
An important feature is the fully referenced bibliographies, including reviews and copious website addresses - the latter ranging from fanzines and authors' and publishers' own sites to academic discussion lists and online journals.
In method as in subject matter, these guides move freely on the interface between print culture and multimedia. Highly finished and pleasantly handleable as books in their own right, they gesture accommodatingly to both words and worlds beyond.
Taking the series as a whole, it also confirms two things: that narrative nowadays is generically highly hybrid and increasingly cross-media; and that an understanding of the processes of writing and reading 'contemporary classic' (or at least 'currently famous') fiction cannot be separated - yet must be distinguished - from the processes of making and marketing books and films."
— The Times Higher Education Supplement, May 31, 2002
From the Publisher
This is an excellent guide to Michael Ondaatje’s best-loved novel. It features a biography of the author, a full-length analysis of the novel, a comparison of the novel to the film, and a great deal more. If you’re studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you’ll find this guide informative and helpful.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent overview,
This review is from: Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)
This short book is an excellent overview for people reading or studying The English Patient. I got it to help with an English/linguistics course with the novel as key text, and it has been very helpful to me. I found though that it was an interesting read in itself and in some cases gave me new insight into others of Ondaatje's books which I have read for pleasure rather than studying.The first chapters are invaluable for providing a background to Ondaatje's work through his personal and academic history, as well as charting the development of the Canadian post-modern movement which provides much of the impetus behind Ondaatje's work. There are numerous and detailed references to his other works as well, which help in showing the development of the concerns and themes prevalent in The English Patient. The section dealing with the narrative and thematic structure of the novel was exceptional - I make particular note of the section on intertextuality, where clear points and inferences are made about the relation between the novel and key intertexts such as Kim. The section on the movie didn't seem to live up the promise - it would have been good to have seen more detail on the similarities and differences between the two texts, and the implications of some of the decisions Minghella made about changing the script. All in all a good resource, but the detail on theory (e.g. post-modernism) may be irrelevant to high school students. There is also a comprehensive list of articles and websites for further reading.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New and Interesting,
By A Customer
This review is from: Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)
This is not a sereis of books that I have seen before, so I don't know if any of the others are good, but this particular volume was very helpful. Short enough to get through in one sitting, it helped me get my thoughts together about The English Patient. I hadn't been sure how to approach it beforehand. I'll admit that once or twice the author lost me - it's a complex novel and his analysis of it is, at times, equally complicated. Ultimately it works, though. You get the impression that John Bolland would be a good teacher. Recommended, if you need help with this novel.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Slight but worthwhile,
By Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries) (Paperback)
Of the three volumes I've looked at in this series, this is the only one I've found worth keeping. A major disappointment of these brief discussions is the failure to include a timeline summary--of either the narrative or the actions it contains. As a consequence, the usefulness of the commentary is limited to readers who are fresh from reading the novel.All the same, Bolland brings lots of welcome information, helpful clarification, and fresh critical perspective to Ondaatje's major achievement. Moreover, his frequent reference to postcolonial theory and Foucault post-structuralism proves to enhance rather than obfuscate his discussion of the novel. Somewhat disappointing, however, is the author's decision to afford no more than 4 pages to the film, especially given its critical reputation and Ondaatje's keen interest in the project.
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