The English Patient is a story about four lives that converge in a war torn part of Italy. All four characters have been profoundly touched by the war and must now rebuild their lives and move on. There is the anonymous and mysterious english patient who is coming to terms with a deceitful past, a young nurse who in order to numb the pain of loss becomes obsessed with nursing the patient back to health, a retired thief who has gone through life with no thought given to where his actions might lead him and a young idealistic bomb specialist who has his ideals turned upside down. Not only are these characters dealing with the aftermath of an external war but there are many inner demons they are all battling, histories they must confront and truths they must question. Ondaatje writes with powerful and captivating intensity but due to his poetic style the text is often weirdly and uncomfortably fragmented and because of this I found the book to be a laborious read. This poeticism made it hard to connect to the characters even when their emotions were described in detail. The book is filled with beautiful and vivid descriptions but it seems that more attention was given to pretty writing than to a substantial plot. What I enjoyed most about The English Patient was Ondaatje's handling of the Identity theme. He makes you think about how identity is constantly changing and that a person's identity is a complex mix of their history, how they perceive themselves, how others perceive them and the lies they tell themselves in order to be able to live with themselves.