Anil's Ghost

I have a few things I’d like to point out after reading Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. The first is that he has an interesting and creative style of writing. The book and the chapters are choppy and give an open-ended feeling when finishing each section. I followed this pretty easily, realizing that the sections all related to dysfunction during difficult times, such as war. But his style mimicked the reality in a literary way. This caused the reader to feel a little confused while still trying to gather information that the author was giving out almost like clues.

While reading, I had to remind myself that the author was a man. A lot of the comments and the ideas seemed to be written or created by a woman. In this essence he portrayed an unbelievable insight into a woman’s psyche. He captured the element of a woman that makes her want to be strong and yet always has an emotional attachment to something she believes in. I felt the same when it came to the other characters like Gamini or Sarath, but the feeling was strongest with Anil.

My favorite quality and feature of Anil’s Ghost was the natural history. Because the characters are dealing with deaths and the relevance of the surrounding evidence (dirt, plant material, or larvae) is important, the reader learns a little about the natural side of Sri Lanka. This is interesting to me because this is my number one fascination: nature. My major is actually called Environment and the Humanities. I enjoy learning about nature and our connection to it, no matter where it is. In this book, Ondaatje points out numerous birds that I have never seen, storms and how they cross the island, and the natural terrain. I actually get a visual to the beautiful aspect of a country even in a time of war.

We, as readers, also learn little things about the culture in Sri Lanka. Like how they might sleep off a drunken episode by lying in front of a running vehicle. Or how at one time, Tamils would plant three trees in the garden, murunga, pomegranate, and mango, for specific purposes. “Murunga leaves were cooked in crab curries to neutralize the poisons, pomegranate leaves were soaked in water for the care of eyes and the fruit eaten to aid digestion, The mango was for pleasure” (240). Another interesting cultural event was the painting of the Buddha statue. There is a quality of fantasy, mystery, and awe in the act of painting the eyes of Buddha. The relevance of this in the book is not specified. I believe it is a contradiction to the events that are occurring within the plot. The Buddha that is built and painted in the finality of the book is like Anil’s character in the story. She goes into Sri Lanka looking for the truth, with her eyes wide open. She does not trust much of anything. The Buddha statue is commonly left with closed eyes, unable to see the fighting and the brutality, but this one is painted to see.