re:mote voices

Title: Anil’s Ghost
Author: Michael Ondaatje
Publisher: Picador

Anil Tissera is a forensic anthropologist who was born in Sri Lanka. For most of her adult life though she has been living in the UK and USA. For many years Sri Lanka has had political problems, with government forces fighting rebels and separatists, with the result being like so many countries that the unmarked/mass graves are numerous. When the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva put out a request for a forensic anthropologist to investigate some of these incidents in Sri Lanka Anil surprises herself by putting herself forward for the job. As such she finds herself teamed up with a Sri Lankan archaeologist for 7 weeks. Given the politics of the situation there is always a tension between Anil and the archaeologist Sarath. Can she trust him, especially when they come across a recent body in an old burial ground that could only have been put their with government complicity.

Given the set up of the plot Anil’s Ghost could easily have been a thriller – even with a wealth of books including the excavation of mass graves, like Paul McAuley’s White Devils (my reading of which over lapped with my reading of this), and there is a particular parallel with something like Kathy Reich’s Grave Secrets. While Grave Secrets follows an anthropologist in Guatemala as she gets caught up in this kind of situation. However Michael Ondaatje takes a different route, and one that is more tangential. Anil’s Ghost is filled with snapshots of Sri Lanka – in a sense that perhaps ranges from newspaper clippings through postcards to oil paintings. Reports of disappearances and massacres are woven into Anil’s investigations. While being fleshed out and contrasted by the life’s of those that Anil meets – which is where some of the real colour and texture comes into the narrative. Even if these are the parts where that narrative becomes the most dislocated, veering off from the linear core.

Despite the curious sense that gives to the book, it actually feels like there is more magic in these peripherals. Palipana, Sarath’s mentor, a controversial archaeologist, who is now blind and lives in an old temple. Gamini, Sarath’s brother, a doctor who lives full time in the hospital and keeps going through the use of drugs. Ananda, who is hired by Anil and Sarath, to reconstruct the face of their corpse, and is a man who brings statues of the Buddha to life by giving them eyes. Each of these characters is fleshed out at the same time as we get a feel for who Anil is – lovers, friends, history. Though for me, the most striking part of Anil’s story is how she bought her name from brother as a child.

Despite everything that happens in Anil’s Ghost – the death and threat – it is not a thriller. With that it can be said Anil’s Ghost perhaps lacks a certain degree of tension that could be expected to drive the plot. This gives the novel a curious feel, which is coupled with a writing style which for the most part feels stripped down – even though at times it comes to life and is able to conjure such memorable images within the winds of a non-linear narrative.