Warlight, Michael Ondaatje, Alfred A Knopf, 2018, 226 pp
Somehow I have never read Ondaatje's most famous book, The English Patient. I think I saw the movie. I did read The Cat's Table and liked it more than many other readers.
I liked Warlight but did not love it wholeheartedly. As in The Cat's Table, there is a boy trying to figure out his parents. In the year following WWII, in London, a 14 year old boy named Nathaniel and his older sister are left in the care of some dodgy characters when their parents leave for Ceylon, or so they are told. It is all quite mysterious concerning those parents.
The kids are supposed to be in boarding school but they hate it there. Their enigmatic guardian, The Moth, arranges for them to live at home and commute to school. Eventually he does not even insist they go at all.
Thus Nathaniel has an unsupervised coming of age that includes his adventures with a criminal friend of The Moth's and a passionate affair with a wild girl. Then life becomes dangerous, the mother reappears, the father never does.
I liked the first section when the parents are gone. Nathaniel is a plucky lad, learning the ways of the world.
The second section after the mother returns and supposedly finishes raising her children was less satisfying. She is the ultimate secretive woman and later in life Nathaniel figures out why. In this section, it is all terribly sad and his life goes nowhere. All the highlights were in that year with The Moth.
The writing is beautiful, I must admit. The story of what happened to the characters is a piece of little known Postwar history and undoubtedly important, but lives are ruined in a John le Carre type of wasted lives story. No redemption.
It was not that I was surprised by how horrible the world can be. I just think the second section laid it on a bit too thick.
The novel is a contender for the 2019 Tournament of Books, pitted in the first round with Call Me Zebra, a book I loved. I predict that Warlight will win that round and that is also sad to me.
(Warlight is available in hardcover by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. The paperback will be released in April, 2019.)
Ondaatje is a wonderful writer and it would seem almost impossible that he would write a bad book. I do agree with your assessments of The Cat's Table and Warlight. The first transported me; the second moved me but not as much. I really had not considered the similarity of their themes. Very perceptive of you as usual!
ReplyDeleteOur reactions lead me to wonder how Warlight got so much more positive attention. Perhaps because of certain plot points I am not going to mention because they would be spoilers? Re the similarity, when I went to read my Cat's Table review I noticed that the boy was coming FROM Ceylon while in Warlight the parents went TO Ceylon.
DeleteI need to try this author, probably The Cat's Table. I actually did read one, more obscure, Running in the Family, when I was looking for a book about Sri Lanka. I was super disappointed. Or maybe I should try some of his poetry
ReplyDeleteAnd I need to read The English Patient.
DeleteI've not read anything written by Michael Ondaatje. Warlight sounds like a interesting read, but think I'll look into his other novels first.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good plan.
DeleteThis is on my TBR list. Now I can't wait until I get there.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to finding out how you liked it.
DeleteOh, don't worry. You will. ;)
DeleteAs you have seen, I have read and reviewed this book in the meantime.
DeleteThanks for your comment.
Just for future reference, here is the link.
I read about 25% last year before I put it aside, because I wasn't making too much progress, to read at a later date--I'll be reading it in the next few months. I actually liked a lot of what I read; I found funny and entertaining (in a dark sort of way, of course) the relationship with The Moth and the guy who trafficked with dogs. No one has mentioned the book being in the least funny, so it must have been all me.
ReplyDeleteNo, you are right. Those parts were funny. I think that is why I liked the first section better.
DeleteI liked The English Patient movie a great deal, but it is a slow-burn.
ReplyDeleteAll I remember is that I liked it. It's been a while.
DeletePerhaps a re-watch is in order.
DeleteMy plan is to read the book, someday, and then watch the movie again.
DeleteI finished Warlight and agree with your review entirely. The first part was funny in a shady kind of way; it was also page-turn(ey). The second half was heavy handed but I liked it a great deal as it complemented the first half so well at the end. As the novel--memoir style--drew to a close, it gave a scathing depiction of how those lives were shattered by the war and postwar experiences. There are no winners in war or its aftermath, seems to be the moral of the story. I found it a very philosophical read overall. Four stars in my opinion because of the thickness of the second half though. I'll be reading The English Patient someday. My interest in Ondaatje has piqued.
DeleteI am happy that you liked it so much. I agree there are no winners in war or its aftermath. And I think you are right about Ondaatje being philosophical.
DeleteYeah I think I'm all right to let this one go. Ondaatje can be Ondaatje. I think i've read 2 of his ... so I'm good for awhile. I think I asked Ron Charles about this one ... when it came out ... and he wasn't real enthused so I let it pass. Hmm. It seems you liked half of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's all good. But reading your review of Cat's Table as well as revisiting my review of it, I realized that the two books are related in a way, either by his own life experiences or just as fiction. Just Ondaatje being Ondaatje I guess.
DeleteI probably will read Warlight sometime ... if the two books seem related ... by his youth or life experiences.
DeleteThat cover is really enticing but I think I'll pass on this one after reading your wonderful review.
ReplyDeleteThat cover is so atmospheric. They made London look like that in some of the episodes of The Queen on Netflix. It was fog made worse by pollution.
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