Anil’s Ghost has so far been a bit more of a challenging read than any of the other novels we have covered so far in this course, at least in my opinion. But it is also probably one of the most interesting that we have read. Several times while reading, I’ve had to stop and wonder how such a conflict has escaped public attention for so long. Until picking up this book, I hadn’t heard or read anything else about what is happening in Sri Lanka. I suppose that it goes back to what we discussed in class: if something that is going on in another country does not directly affect the United States, it doesn’t receive attention from the media.
The various side stories that are tied to the main narrative make it a bit difficult to keep the entire cast of characters straight, but the way Ondaatje ties all of them together makes the novel that much more effective in the message it is trying to deliver to the reader. In this way, he is able to show how far the effects of the Sri Lankan conflict reach. People of all ages and walks of life have been affected in one way or another by the ongoing violence. From what I’ve read so far, one of the best examples of how much suffering the war has spread is in the list of missing persons on page 41. Every name was connected to a group of family and friends who were forced to wait in agonizing uncertainty for confirmation of a loved one’s fate. Even though all of them knew that the answer they were waiting for was likely that their loved one had been killed, it would still bring them the closure that they desperately need.
Anil seems to have returned to her home country with a similar need for closure. Although she has been away from Sri Lanka for fifteen years at the time the story begins, she has returned as part of a human rights group in order to help shed light on why the country is in such chaos. She is very protective of the skeletons that she and Sarath are working with, knowing that they are the most important clues to discovering who is behind the murders all around the country. She is there to give a face to the victims of the conflict and cannot rest without completing what she set out to do.
Allison: a good post clearly indicating your response to the book. I'm glad you pointed to the section in which the author gives a list of the missing people because that is a very important part of the book. Like Anil and the various other people in the book, the reader also looks for a sense of closure thus making it very hard reading.
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