Just finished this book and this is the best time to blurt out everyhting - when everything about Anil is fresh in my mind. Some books take time to get assimilated into your system and this one belongs to that category. I haven’t yet started another book, because Anil’s Ghost still haunts me.
With those opening lines, I’ll jump straigtway to what this book is all about and then to author’s style of writing.
*Warning - Spoiler / Plot starts here(ala wikipedia style:)
The story is about a Sri Lankan forensic anthrologist "Anil Tissera" who has been away from her homeland for 15(long) years to study medicine in the west. She is now part of commissioned investigation by human rights group in Geneva. She sets her feet back on her homeland to investigate the human rights violation amidst the anarchic ways of civil war that has ravaged the populace of Sri Lanka.
She has to team up with some local guide and that’s Sarath Diyasena - the noted middle aged Sri Lankan archaeologist who’s stuck to his homeland, come what may, and has seen times changin’. He comes from a wealthy family of lawyers but chose not to pursue law and instead was a natural at archaeology. Anil doesn’t trust him completely.
The other important character is Gamini. He’s the doctor who had romantic nineteenth century ideas about the profession when he took it up. But demands of the profession during war torn times turn out to be totally diametric to his dreams. He lost his love and his family and is still serving.
Palipana - I found the name interesting - is the guru of Sarath and once country’s best. Now a forgotten blind old man leading an ascetic life where once budhist monks roamed.
Ananda - He’s the local artisan who paints eyes on a statue of Buddha(a ceremony called Netra Mangla). Anil and Sarath need him during their investigation.
Anil sets about excavating with Sarath(Distrusting him through the corner of her eyes and at times, making it explicitly known to him) and comes across a skeleton which she believes is not more than 5 years old. Code named "Sailor", she goes about finding more details that could reveal the identity of the Sailor and that could provide her with an evidence of murders done by government. Of course, Sarath dissaudes her a lot only to find her too strong willed to succumb and is left toeing her line and joins the investigation with her.
For obvious reasons, they find no support from any quarter and have to struggle a lot.
Will Anil be able to find out true identity of Sailor ? Was Sarath a government spy? Who was Gamini? What was Ananda’s role ?
Hmmmmmm. My hands are tired. I can’t type plot beyond this:)
End of Warning - Spoilers end here(ala wikipedia style again:D)
Throug his writing style, of flashbacks and recollections, Ondaatje(I hope it’s spelled correctly:) reveals the beautiful landscape of Sri Lanka. By joining Anil and Sarath in the investigations, reader gets to see the madness of war. The man eats man syndrome, the pettiness of human actions, the daily lives of people caught between blood and gore, countless sufferings, to benefit whom? I believe, no one in the end.
Book is powerful and well balances the art of flashbacks and recountings to leave an effect on you that leaves you wondering and sometimes pondering about the complex nature of humans .
Trivia - Michael Ondaatje is the author of booker prize winning "The English Patient".