I'm 76 pages into Anil's Ghost, and the question that I keep coming back to is "Who is Anil's Ghost?" Anil is the protagonist of the book, so if the ghost is the ghost of Anil, she is destined to die at some point during the novel. That seems unlikely, at least at this point. So, is Anil's ghost something that led her to Sri Lanka or something that she finds in Sri Lanka?
So far there are many possible ghosts. As a forensic archaeologist, she's dealing with dead bodies, so is she to become so embroiled in the search for what happened to the skeleton mentioned most often that he becomes her ghost? Why did her colleague take photographs of this one skeleton in particular and place them in a envelope that he then addressed? To whom is he sending them? If her colleague is not trustworthy, maybe the ghost of Anil will take a lead role later in the story, but I still doubt that. What about her parents? Is there some unfinished business with them or with her brother that will come to haunt her? Why did Anil relinquish the name given to her at birth in exchange for her current name?
One question leads to another in this book, but there is also a plot with events that keep me wanting to read more. I don't know what I'm enjoying most -- the questions prompted by the title and plot or the story itself? I left England at close to the same age as Anil was when she left Sri Lanka. I can relate to the feelings of belonging and not belonging to the country of one's childhood. That Michael Ondaatje understands this dichotomy after leaving Sri Lanka to live in Canada is clear in the thoughts and actions of Anil. How will this come into play in the rest of the novel?
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