/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-CANADA: Michael Ondaatje Serves Up Another Thoughtful Novel

By Paul Weinberg Reprint | | Print |

Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, May 30 2000 (IPS) - Meeting the Sri-Lanka born and Canada- based author Michael Ondaatje as I once did decades ago while taking one of his English courses at York University in Toronto, I encountered a quiet and distant instructor who also has an obsession for detail and research in his fiction.

Somewhat the same experience comes while reading his latest novel, “Anil’s Ghost”, the story of a young forensic anthropologist who returns to her native Sri Lanka under the auspices of a Geneva based human rights group after being away for 15 years in the United States and England.

We hear much about Anil Tissera’s early success at swimming, the decision to buy the name “Anil,” a man’s name from her brother, the departure abroad to study in her chosen field, the ups and downs of relationships and the struggle to root out the truth about a possible political murder in a country wracked by civil war and atrocities committed on all sides.

But the central character remains inscrutable and elusive, despite all the information provided. Not a character you warm up to; she is a loner and a workaholic.

“Anil’s Ghost” is a richly layered novel, set in a country full of intrigue and danger amidst the lush forests and old Buddhist statutes and monasteries.

In an era of international courts devoted to human rights and “failed states,” this book is very topical. Like a lot of people who leave their homes in the developing world, Anil, after a lengthy absence from Sri Lanka returns feeling like a foreigner. She speaks in English, having forgotten most of her first language, Sinhala. And her cultural references are Hollywood movies, not the ancient lore of Sri Lanka.

An archaeologist, Sarath Diyasena, accompanies Anil. Selected by the government to co-operate in the investigation, he is ambivalent about exploring the six-year old skeletal remains of an individual – dubbed “Sailor” – which are discovered on a government burial site. We find out about Sarath’s wife who committed suicide and an estranged brother and doctor Gamini who also loved her.

Anil and Sarath, in the course of their work, debate the usefulness of truth finding. Anil sees her present investigation as a means to bring some justice and clarity to a lost life amidst a situation where all sides appear ruthless. But Sarath sees the truth as further complicating an already turbulent form of politics in Sri Lanka. Eventually, the murdered victim is identified, setting off further tension of what to do next.

Much as we learned about desert exploration and how mines and bombs were neutralised by sappers in World War II in Ondaatje’s Booker Prize winning novel

“The English Patent” so the readers of “Anil’s Ghost” are given new insights into forensic investigation. Anil at one point relies on an analysis of the pupae of insects, which have eaten into the corpse, to find out Sailor’s identity and where he died.

The narrative is slowed by some unnecessary detours. But one worthwhile one is a profile of the obsessive and drug addicted Gamini who lives in the hospital where he works. He is the most compelling character in the book.

Fortunately, Ondaatje in “Anil’s Ghost”, his most political of books, does not burden us with detail about the political figures and factions in Sri Lanka. Allusions are made to guerrillas, but we don’t know which ones and it doesn’t matter. As in his previous works, the author prefers looking for larger truths in the isolated activity of specific characters amidst an intractable human tragedy.

Ondaatje began writing wonderful poetry before delving into prose, and it shows in his last three novels ¡ “In the Skin of the Lion”, “The English Patient” and “Anil’s Ghost” – where the dream-like imagery enlivens the writing. “Anil’s Ghost” is more straightforward and perhaps easier to read than the other two.

Both the latest novel and a recent book of poetry represent a renewed interest in his native country which Ondaatje left at the age of 11. He did write “Running in the Family”, an earlier often funny memoir about his disturbed and eccentric father back home, but by and large, the author has steered clear of his personal origins.

Among his other books is the “Collected Works of Billy the Kid”, a prose poem about the American West’s most famous cowboy and “Coming Through Slaughter”, the story, in poetry, of a New Orleans jazz musician.

“Anil’s Ghost” is published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart. It has been released only in North America and the United Kingdom. Worldwide distribution is planned later this year.