The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

This was one of the Bookers, which I had seen as a film prior to reading it as part of this process, though I have only a rather vague memory of the film and so, as a disclaimer, I had formed no particular prejudice regarding this book.  It’s also worth noting that I am also in process of trying to watch all the Best Picture Oscar-winning films and this particular book and film fulfil a tick on both lists (I am fully aware that it may seem like my life is filled with working my way through lists, a point highlighted by various friends and family with various amounts of amusement/bemusement – in my defence, I just find it a helpful way to guide watching and reading works that have been considered the best of year’s work in a particular field by a group of judges – and obviously I don’t limit myself purely to these lists!)  Anyway ‘The English Patient’ turned out to be a particular highlight in the line-up of the Booker winners which I relished reading.

It was a delightfully well-formed novel with its story woven expertly through reminiscence and present tense description of four characters who had by various circumstances ended up residing in a deserted and partially bombed monastery in Italy in the aftermath of WW2.  There is the ‘English Patient’ a severely burnt man who is bed bound in a room upstairs, cared for by Hana, a nurse who refused, along with the patient, to move on with the rest of the military hospital.  Caravaggio an old family friend of Hana’s and then Kip, an Indian soldier who signed up and worked under Lord Suffolk in bomb deposal, joins them.  From their daily lives to the vast reaches of their reminisces the writing conveys the atmosphere of its wide-range of settings exquisitely from the desert plains during exploration prior to WW2 to a Indian soldier’s integration into a bomb deposal team in England during WW2.  It achieved the difficult task of navigating through memory and consequent identity of these characters to their relationships while staying in the Italian villa.

In addition to it being a pleasure to read with its fragments of story it was also fascinating in terms of giving an insight into desert exploration, espionage, bomb deposal while touching on themes of love, identity, loyalty, war and the effects of traumatic circumstances and how different people respond.    Yet it didn’t feel epic in its proportions, in fact its strength was portraying so much in such a sensitive, intimate, people-sized novel.  And I can’t help but mention that I find it completely unbelievable that this gem had to share the award with Peter Carey’s ‘Oscar and Lucinda’ as in my view there was absolutely no contest and that this should have been the rightful winner, but I guess that is what makes awards so compelling and controversial!

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

Attempting to read all the Bookers has now taken me to three libraries across the county and I’m starting to learn the remaining titles off by heart, although I still take along my list!  I stand there hopefully scanning the shelves, my heart beats faster as I recognise the author and then…usually the disappointment that it’s unfortunately another of their books.  However, occasionally author and title combine and I happily snatch it from the shelf and check it out.   Although I do miss the librarian and the chats you used to have about the books you were taking out.  And when I was growing up I was always fascinated by how they used to slide the book along the counter which triggered a clunk, followed by the date stamp with another satisfying thud.  The machine, despite very cleverly working out which books you are taking out even when they are in a pile just isn’t the same!

Anyway this most recent Booker was rather non-descript really.  It was readable, had some quite engaging characters and an interesting premise but it felt like something was missing that would have made it really good, but I’m not sure what!

The Hotel du Lac of the title is a hotel in Switzerland where the protagonist Edith Hope, an author, goes to stay to escape a scandal at home which is only explained towards the end of the book.  She observes the other guests at the hotel and gradually befriends them and through her time at the hotel she reflects on various aspects of her life. I felt as though I didn’t get much of a feel for the atmosphere of the setting although Brookner’s characters were more fully realised.  And that’s pretty much it.  It wasn’t a particular highlight but then it wasn’t a chore to read either – just rather ordinary.