WARLIGHT

You would think that a novel about both parents suddenly leaving their two children to be cared for by unknowns in 1945 England would be exciting. But Michael Ondaatje (win a chicken dinner if you can pronounce that last name) has a knack for being boring and dull. The author of the award winning novel, The English Patient gets away with his seemingly anemic story because of his first class prose. Do you remember that episode on the Seinfeld TV show where Elaine is forced to watch the movie (The English Patient) that all her friends and boss loved? She shouts in the theater, “I can’t do this anymore...I hate it...die already!" Anyway, a blitzed out England should be a great milieu for a story. And it is, as we see that the main chaperones for the children are known by Nathaniel (age 14) and Rachel (age 16) as The Moth and The Darter. The story is narrated by Nathaniel, who at the age of twenty-eight, decides to find out the truth beyond their disappearances. Although the mother came back to the kids in about a year, it was like pulling teeth to get the answers of where she was. And when the answers come, the author takes his good old time to pass along the humdrum details to the reader. I liked the novel strictly because of the composition of the writer, but if you are expecting excitement in war torn England...forget it

“One morning either our mother (Rose/Viola), or our father suggested that after breakfast the family have a talk, and they told us that they would be leaving us and going to Singapore for a year.” Really? The father told them that he got a promotion to take over the Unilever office in Asia.They would be put in boarding schools a mile apart and on weekends and holidays they would be cared for by a guardian they previously met at their home. Mom stayed for a week after dad left to pack her steamer trunk and to firm up the boarding school arrangements. The kids could not stand boarding school because, “Everyone there already knew they had been essentially  abandoned.” Luckily, Nat gets caught urinating in the bathroom sink and almost gets expelled if it wasn’t for The Moth talking the School Master into letting the kids become day students only. Once home, the kids meet Moth’s friends. All lovable...my favorite is The mysterious Darter. One day the kid’s find mom’s steamer trunk in the basement. How could she have gone away without all her belongings? That night, Nat asks The Moth, “Where is my father?” Moth says, “I’ve had no communication with him.” Nat says, “But my mother was joining him.” The Moth says, “No...you must believe me, she isn’t there with him.” That’s all happens in the first twenty nine pages.

You know everybody has different opinions. For me the novel was lackluster, while other people will find the story exhilarating. That's what makes the world go around. The author's assets are his prose, his minimal main characters, and his ability to make the reader feel empathy for everyone in the story. I guess I just wasn't wholeheartedly committed to the story line. Anywho, Michael Ondaatje is recognized as a premium writer, so don't let my review stop you from reading his novel. Not for nothing, does anybody know what nationality Ondaatje is? I know he was born in Sri Lanka, spent time in England and now is a Canadian living in Toronto.
 
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

Comment: I just looked at Goodreads.com’s The 421 most boring books ever. The first 57 on their list (that I’ve read) don’t make any sense to me (except two). The following are their rank of boredom according to Goodreads.com: 
  
(2) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957) - Are they crazy! Number two! One of the greatest books ever written.

(4) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951) - This is one of the exceptions that I agree with.

(26) Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) - I didn’t think this novel was boring at all.

(29) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859) - How dare they attack one of the greatest writers of all time.

(32) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939) - What!!! This book is a classic.

(43) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861) - I loved this book, It was required reading in high school. Dickens is going to turn over in his grave.

(46) The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1390) - I couldn’t agree more! But shouldn’t it be number one? I was forced to read this book in High School.

(52) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004) - A wonderful walk through the world of magic.

(55) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1849) - Are you kidding me?

(57) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005) - The best vampire novel ever written and in the epistolary style to boot.