My parents turned me onto Ondaatje Cav...ain't they smart?
I should add, Ondaatje was heavily involved with the movie, and was very pleased with the results. I'm just not a fan of the flick myself.
Cool panzade. He is an amazing writer.
I have neither seen the movie nor read the book, 'though I noticed that the bibliography shews that he has written nothing since T.E.P; perhaps the film killed things off? So, they got rid of most of the original novel's meaning?
Drom-I guarantee...guarantee mind you, that you will love the book.
The bibliography might be out of date. What bothered me about the movie was the dumbing down of the characters. In the novel, they were all central characters intertwined, the movie focused mostly on just two. So, the interplay between everybody, and the deep, intertwined symbolism of their spider-web stories was lost.
I find that Hollywood always whittles every work down to concentrate on two people. It's as if it were a natural impulse to them, to salvage conventional love from every novel. Every adaptation of Wuthering Heights that I can think of, for an example, has concentrated on Heathcliff and Cathy, rather than the new generation. -- This completely defeats what Emily Brontë was saying about getting away from past evil.
Would you recommend that one read 'The English Patient' before any other of his novels?
Hmm...If I were to study an author, I would start with the earliest works, then move on to the later works to mark progression in style, but if you had to pick one, The English Patient did garner a lot of attention, and if you read that first, you can see the movie and decide whether or not it sucks, despite the Oscar.
Good advice. I had a friend at school who tragically died at 42. You should read her also for she was one of Canada's greatest writers I feel. Her name was Carole Corbeil.
"In The Wings"....great book.
Winning Oscars says little or nothing to me. So, which was your favourite, you two?
http://www.cariboo.bc.ca/ae/engml/friedman/ondaatjebiblio.htm
I"ve only read In The Skin Of The Lion and English Patient so Cav would have to step in.
Great Drom, Washington is where I grew up...it's a marvelous city.
I can't choose. 'Coming Through Slaughter' and 'Running in the Family' were both good too.
Do you recommend seeing anything in particular while I'm around there, Panz? I like visiting all the environs; I'm not a touristic tourists...
GOD Help the Wolf After Whom the Dogs Do Not Bark
There you met it - the mystery of that hatred.
After your billions of years in anonymous matter
That was where you were found - and promptly hated.
You tried your utmost to reach and touch those people
with gifts of yourself -
Just like your first words as a toddler
When you rushed at every visitor to the house
Clasping their legs and crying: 'I love you, I love you!'
Just as you had danced for your father
In the home of anger - gifts of your life
To sweeten his slow death and mix yourself in it
Where he lay propped on the couch.
To sugar the bitterness of his raging death.
You searched for yourself to go on giving it
As if after the nightfall of his going
You danced on in the dark house.
Eight years old, in your tinsel.
Searching for yourself, in the dark, as you danced,
Floundering a little, crying softly,
Like somebody searching for somebody drowning
In dark water,
Listening for them - in panic at losing
Those listening seconds from your searching -
Then dancing wilder in the silence.
The Colleges lifted their heads. It did seem
You disturbed something just perfected
That they were holding carefully, all of a piece.
Till the glue dried. And as if
Reporting some felony to the police
They let you know that you were not John Donne.
You no longer care. Did you save their names?
But then they let you know, day by day,
Their contempt for everything you attempted.
Took pains to inject their bile, as for your health,
Into your morning coffee. Even signed
Their homeopathic letters,
Envelopes full of carefully broken glass
To lodge behind your eyes so you would see
Nobody wanted your dance,
Nobody wanted your strange glitter - your floundering
Drowning life and your effort to save yourself,
Treading water, dancing the dark turmoil,
Looking for something to give -
Whatever you found
They bombarded with splinters,
Derision, mud - the mystery of that hatred.
. Did you keep in contact after having left school? I'll check her out, if I can find her. If not, I'll be coming over to America in November, to commentate on the elections live from Washington.... (hopefully.) 
