Warlight (Vintage International) Paperback – April 2, 2019

I’ve read all but one of Michael Ondaatje’s novels, with varying degrees of enjoyment - ranging from really good to wonderful. Each are unique in subject and in method of unraveling their stories; however, all retain Ondaatje’s style. It’s a style that is hard to describe - at once uncomplicated in prose, yet with depth of character and emotion. I suppose he is able to say so much with so little.Ondaatje’s latest release, Warlight, shows such restraint. From the innocence of a child whom we follow into adulthood, we hear from protagonist Nathaniel, unraveling his own life and that of his mother’s. Nathaniel is 15, his sister Rachel is 17 when their parents supposedly depart for Singapore for a year. The opening line lures the reader in with, “In 1945 our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals”. Nathaniel takes us through his strange adventure of post-war England; of London, a city still dark with destruction from German bombs; of dim lights and persistent fog - all that form the silhouette of warlight.As we begin to learn more about Nathaniel’s and Rachel’s mysterious mother, we can start to know his guardians, nicknamed the Moth and the Darter, and the influence on their young lives. The characters swirling around these children live in a harsh world of war-like sedition and deceit. Yet, Ondaatje is able to weave the threads of these eccentrics and their care for these children into a beautiful and delicate tapestry. Gamblers, lovers, scientists, cooks, and climbers - the most interesting characters are introduced along the way then fade out, only to reappear later in unexpected places.Through the layers of an unusual family unit and English espionage, the novel’s backdrop is based in truth with Ondaatje applying careful research for historical accuracy and thoughtful nuance. I sped through the book and was loathe to finish. Warlight is a poignant story, and perhaps it is time I pick up the one I haven’t read - The English Patient.

There are lots of wonderful things about this book, but one thing seemed to me a little flat -- the characters. The story is that of two teenaged children, a boy and a girl, living in London in 1945. The first part of the book tells of their disrupted adolescence. Their father disappears, to take up a job in Singapore they are told, and is shortly followed by their mother. They are looked after by a strange cast of possibly criminal characters, and their lives spin out of the upper middle class mold they seem to have been born into. In the second part of the book, it is almost fifteen years later, and the now-grown up boy -- Nathaniel -- is trying to piece together what happened. Most of it comes together, but we are reminded that memory is constructed.The writing is lovely, particularly when it comes to the description of natural phenomena -- rivers, dogs, brush; the descriptions are so evocative that you can practically small the settings. And there is a delicate awareness of how treacherous time can be, particularly our own efforts to assemble our own pasts. What I missed was characters who drew me in. In the first part, Nathaniel does this to a degree, and some of the subsidiary characters are vividly drawn. But in the second part, it all feels distant -- we observe Nathaniel trying to reconstruct things based on what other people choose to tell him. There is a sense of many layers between the truth (if there is one) and the observer. Life is indeed like that, but in this instance it puts some of the characters at such a distance that it is difficult to figure out what has happened to them, or indeed to care very much.All in all the book is well worth reading, if not entirely satisfying.

The first third of the novel is interesting and indicates a complex story to follow. However, as the various sections develop, there is a dullness to the writing and the narrator is colorless. I would call him an "uninformed narrator" which could be intriguing, but it is easy to get lost in his rather empty tales and memories. The figure of his mother is never fully develop as she was a secret agent during the war; however, when he does live with her there is not much to tell us. His here and then sister is also part of the problem--we never really get to know her as she is never developed fully. The other strange and vague characters who enter and then leave and then enter the story leave us wondering how to piece together who they are and why we should pay attention to what they do and say. The method of using memory to discover the importance of the past is a valid theme, but here it leaves us with too many holes and unanswered questions. Unfortunately, I found myself skipping a lot toward the end, searching for a section that would give specifics. A worthy try but a missed opportunity to engage the reader.

What if your entire life is not really what you thought it was? What does this do to a child?In 1945 Nathaniel and his older sister Rachel say goodbye to their father and then their mother. They were left in the care of two older men who gave them food and care but few answers. It was always thought by Nathaniel that his father was given a promotion, and his mother went to join him to help him in his career.. However, as years go by, Nathaniel decides to investigate. What he discovers changes his outlook on life, and in reality disturbs it to the degree that life is no longer what it should be.The author, Michael Ondjaate, has written another great novel of war time, and the superb writing will catch you up. This is a story like others in the aspect of missing parents and what that does to children, and unlike others, all is not what it seems. We are all drawn into the family circle of parents and children. But, caretakers who are not of the family, and caretakers whose bidding is due to other circumstances, is another story entirely. I have loved this type of genre for a long time, but this is outside anything I could have imagined.Recommended. prisrob 05-17-19

Instead of gradually revealing the whole story and tying everything up with a ribbon at the end, Ondaatje explores what we don't and can't know. Layer after layer of secrecy, deception, and hidden realities make this novel a profound reading experience. As Nathaniel struggles to discover who his mother really is and what she has done as a British agent in the post-WWII period, he pushes against a whole culture of re-casting or even obliterating the past. The story is not without its shocks and surprises; Nathaniel can sometimes create a whole beach from a grain of sand. Ondaatje writes vividly, richly, and often graphically, in full command of the dazzling style we first saw in In the Skin of a Lion.WARLIGHT may be set in the past, but it is supremely relevant to our own age, where the truth has become more slippery than ever.

I didn't know where the story was going at first but it turned out to be a true page turner. I really liked it.

Facinante historia, todavía no he acabado el libro pero estoy disfrutando mucho.

Warlight has a very beautiful story, with quite a lot of suspense. The whole novel is based on war time but it also shows a whole lot of love of a son towards his mother throughout the novel. Nathaniel's inability to forget the past- to unable to forget the teenage years in the absence of his parents- makes us realise how some events can have a life-altering effect on you... even though his sister has moved on from that past and doesn't want to relive those moments.Nathaniel's clinging on to the past and trying to relive it only makes me remember about my childhood memories that I've never forgotten- even in all current positives and negatives.I thoroughly enjoyed this drama and it has left a long after-effect on me... like all good read should.

Un récit passionnant en deux parties. L'une raconte les aventures vécues par le narrateur adolescent lorsque, pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, ses parents le laissent ainsi que sa soeur aux "bons soins" d'un quasi inconnu et disparaissent sans donner de nouvelles. La deuxième relate la découverte progressive par le narrateur devenu adulte de ce que fut la vie de sa mère pendant la guerre. L'écriture est d'une grande qualité littéraire.