Anil's Ghost

by Michael Ondaatje

Introduction and Acquisition: ebay! One of my very first and few ebay purchases. For a mere $.99 (minus shipping and handling costs). Loved his book The English Patient, was enamoured of his writing style, and finally got around to getting this book.

Time and Circumstance: End of March to mid-April, 2007, in the midst of my few final acts for graduate school. Shamelessly used as distraction and procrastination against the dreariness of exams and such.

What was cool: Ondaatje's prose, the way he writes, his wonderful turn of phrases, his precise, succint descriptions that, like an ant, carry far heavier loads than one would think possible. His characters are fully fleshed, as minor as some are to the story. It stops being so much about the story as it is this rich, beautifully detailed painting - all with words, merely with words. With black and white, he creates vivid colors.

And you know what? It made me cry. This book made me cry.

What kind of sucked: Not much. If anything, I was left wanting to know more about the character he wrote. I wanted Anil to be a better person, to be happier. I wanted the ending to be happy, I wanted the last page to be about them all riding off into the sunset. But this book is about ghosts, after all - hollowed shells, dusty barren places, barren souls.

Due to the circumstances under which I read it, the book would be put down and away for a long time(like weeks, rather than days or hours) before picking up the threads of the story again. Which caused me to sort of forget exactly what happened and who these people were and who was doing what at the time. So minor warning - don't put this book down for long! You may get lost trying to pick it up again.

Leftover thoughts: I have always found it difficult to describe exactly what it is about Ondaatje's writing that affects me so. It is written and unfolds the way in which one discovers other people in real life - tiny bits of detail float to the surface, revealing glimpses of them bit by bit. Eventually the whole tale is told, or sometimes it is merely left to mystery and imagination. The reader is introduced to the character as he or she is right here, right now. Along the journey, along the way you find out how and why they came to be. It's the world presented as is, and I like that about his books.