[author: Michael Ondaatje] has a poetic kind of lull to his writing; it draws you in slowly and puts a spell on you. It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I was in, I enjoyed it. His look at the warzone terror of Sri Lanka seems to be an attempt to step out of the mess of politics and power and violence, and into the inner human drama. At times I felt like I would have wanted to see some more delving into the reasons behind the atrocities, as in the story, the government, insurgents, and guerillas are presented as distant, unknowable perpetrators of violence. But perhaps this is Ondaatje's very point: that there is no excuse, no reason, no logic behind atrocity. His concern is with life.