michael ondaatje – Cannonball Read 17

The English Patient

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

August 3, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

CBR14Bingo – Rec’d – This book is “recommended” in the sense that when I was in high school, a crush of mine told me I should read it, and it was presented in an obviously challenging way, but I didn’t get it. I also didn’t get that it was flirtatious, and honestly a little revealing about their intentions. The book has the real disservice of people deciding that the movie is long and boring. I actually like the movie a lot, but the weird thing […]

You were moving so fast it was unimportant to finish and clear everything.

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje

December 25, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is an early novel by Michael Ondaatje, and a very good reminder (going back to The English Patient too) that Michael Ondaatje’s early writing is informed greatly by his also being a working poet. In this novel we follow along through a series of interviews and perspectives detailing the life of an early jazz and blues musician and photographer. This is novel captures the frenetic, violent, sexualized, entropic, chaotic, life of the musician. So the novel is short, explosive, and energetic throughout. I think a […]

It finds the right story at the halfway point

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

January 23, 2019 by lowercasesee 3 Comments

The first half of this book was a real slog for a number of reasons that all kind of boiled down to – it’s yet another novel about a young white boy figuring out life in the shadow of World War II. At this point, I have lost count of the number of these I have read and they all blur together, and this one just also felt like not enough actually happened in it for it to stand out. The first half of the […]

‘Half the life of cities occurs at night,’ Olive Lawrence warned us. ‘There’s a more uncertain morality then’

July 30, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Warlight – 3/5 Stars Warlight is the latest novel by Michael Ondaatje, most famous of course for The English Patient which won the Booker Price 25 years ago and recently won a kind of reissue Booker Prize and of course the film version of the movie won Best Picture at the Oscars and I really like the movie and plenty of people do not. So this book has also been nominated for the Longlist of the Booker Prize. Like a lot of late novels by […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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