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Discuss “Michael Ondaatje: Author of "The English Patient"”

Checklist for achieving the ?Writer?s Look?: Beard? Check. Glasses? Check. Graying hair? Check. Deep, warm voice? Check. Omnipresent scarf? Check. Michael Ondaatje has all those characteristics. But he has a few marks on his r?sum? other writers don?t. For one thing, he?s written in the genres of poetry, fiction, and memoir. For another, a film based on his novel The English Patient won no fewer than nine Oscars.

Michael Ondaatje has lived in Sri Lanka, England, and Canada, but was born to Indian and Dutch parents. He started his reading at the University of Pittsburgh?s campus by saying that when he started his first book of prose, he felt like ?I was either going mad or I was on to something.?

Obviously, he was on to something.

When Ondaatje...

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