Rant. Ugh.
So it was a good book. I enjoyed it. I liked the characters and how we got to know their pasts and what made them who they are. I liked their different takes on things and how their different lives collided.
But the ending was so awful. It felt like Ondaatje hit some arbitrary word count goal and went, "Okay, now let's wrap it up," and did it as quickly/shoddily as he could. He spent so much time focusing on the characters' pasts — why just focus on what happened to Kip after he leaves? He didn't even show up until well into the book!
How did Almasy die? Did Caravaggio OD him with morphine? Did he get an infection? Did he just die? How long after the events at the villa did he die? Was his death a metaphor (he's now Almsay instead of the English patient) and he actually survived? Did Caravaggio pass on what he'd found out to the army? What happened to him after Almasy died? Did Hana go straight back to Canada, or did she go to another nursing position? How did her personal life turn out?
Am I missing something about the meaning of the ending? It felt like my book was missing a bunch of chapters and I'm just so mad I never got closure on anything.
Okay, rant over. I just want to shout this into the world because no one in my real life has read this book.
by Plastic_Kangaroo1234