The English Patient

November 20, 2007 at 11:55 pm (The English Patient, metaphor, stylistic)

“He glares out, each eye a path, down the long bed at the end of which is Hana.  After she has bathed him she breaks the tip off an ampoule and turns to him with the morphine.  An effigy. A bed.  He rides the boat of morphine.  It races in him, imploding time and geography the way maps compress the world onto a two-dimensional sheet of paper.”

from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje pg. 161

Permalink Leave a Comment

The English Patient

November 20, 2007 at 11:48 pm (The English Patient, simile, sleep)

“Moments before sleep are when she feels most alive, leaping across fragments of the day, bringing each moment into the bed with her like a child with schoolbooks and pencils.”

from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje pg. 35

Permalink Leave a Comment