The Greatest Novel of my life

I heard of the English Patient way back in 97-98 but didn't bother much to find out more about the movie. Something that I regretted the most after I finished the book recently. It can easily pass for a poem for everything about the book has a mesmerising lyrical quality not surprising as I found later that Michael Oandatje is a poet first. There are such poignant moments in this book that are unheard of, people don't think this way let alone write this way anymore. Hana cutting off her hair after it dips into one dying soldiers blood because she doesn't want anything to do with death, the English Patient cutting his hand on the knife just to feel the blood trickle down, Hana putting her head on Kip's shoulder and sleeping for the first time in days after they have diffused a bomb together, all these written with such a melancholic touch it puts you in a daze of sorts. I sometimes wondered if Oandatje put himself in as a ghost character in the book so that he could peer into their lives and see them even when they didn't want to be watched. There is such a sense of loss in the book and yet you finish the book feeling so good. Midway trough the book I wondered how he was going to finish the book for anything would be a damp ending but I shouldn't have worried much for the ending only makes you pine and scream for more. Also really surprised that a westerner could write with such lyrical excellence it is mostly the eastern civilization that gets credit for this. I won't talk about plot and stuff for it really doesn't matter because this book is about characters be it Hana the nurse, Kip the Surdar or Carravagio the thief you see each one of them so clearly it's almost as if they jump out of the pages. The war was over but the scars it left behind were never more visible. The book truly is, a magnificient web of dreams