Comments on Summer Reading: "The English Patient"

"Give me a map and I'll build you a city. Give me a pencil and I will draw you a room in South Cairo, desert charts on the wall. Always the desert was among us. I could wake and raise my eyes to the map of old settlements along the Mediterranean coast--Gazala, Tobruk, Mersa Matruh--and south of that the hand-painted wadis, and surrounding those the shades of yellowness that we invaded, tried to lose ourselves in."


The English Patient. A desert explorer who is being treated by a Canadian nurse in an abandoned Italian hospital. He slowly tells of his life in the desert and his love of the desert. The reason I chose this quote as an example of excellent storytelling is the descriptive nature of the quote. This quote is easily an example of the amount of detail of words that weave together the novel. There is just enough detail in his quote and that the reader can feel the patient's love and passion for the desert and exploring. The reader is left to his or her own imagination of the desert, which is the key for excellent storytelling. The words in the novel give parameters and meaning, but the reader fills in the detail, which is why everyone reads a book differently, sees characters differently, or sees settings differently. A good story lets readers add their own experiences to the story and lets readers help make the story their own, lets readers add a bit of themselves into the story. That is why The English Patient is such a good book. It is extremely detailed and amazingly descriptive. You can escape into the desert, or Cairo, or the abandoned Italian hospital, almost as though you are standing next to the characters themselves. That is what excellent storytelling is all about. Allowing others to escape into a land that you created and letting them help shape and experience your world for themselves.