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Article: The English Patient.
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- November 19, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Candice Sackuvich is a journalist who lives in Kansas City, Kan.
All four main characters in The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf, 1993), came to a bombed-out Italian villa near the end of World War II bearing crosses. Their losses are varied -- from thumbs, to lovers to aching idealism. One character, a thief for the war effort, had been caught, handcuffed to a table leg and his thumbs sawed off. If is tormenters lacked the foresight to realize that without the opposing impediments and with blood as a lubricant, he'd slip out and escape.
The title character, a pilot burned beyond recognition, was less fortunate. He had escaped a burning plane ...