The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje is a master writer. His prose is so lyrical, it flows, it wraps around your imagination. I wasn't sure what I was going to make of The Cat's Table. The premise seemed simple enough, but simple things did not happen on the ship, Oronsay, as it traveled from Sri Lanka to England. There were so many twists and turns, paths not to be taken, and ones all too alluring.

The Cat's Table is primarily told from the perspective of Michael (nicknamed Mynah), on his journey to be reunited with his mother in England. The story feels so real as it's being told. Michael grows up to be an author, which is the last piece of information that makes you wonder if the tale is actually autobiographical. Much of what happens to the main character feels real. The people he meets feel real. It has a "life story" sensibility. You could be told this tale is a memoir and you would believe it. It is so believable, that Ondaatje includes a note at the end of the story telling the reader that the story is fictional. He did not take a trip on a boat called the Oronsay. Apparently, there were many boats with that name travelling from Sri Lanka to England during that time.

By the end of the novel, my heart had begun to reach out to Emily. I was so happy that she and Michael reconnected. I was glad that they figured out the truth of what happened to the CID agent. I loved all the characters. Cassius and Ramadhin felt like really people. They felt like they could have been life-long friends. I immensely enjoyed Mr. Daniels and Miss Lasqueti. Miss Lasqueti's story was an interesting one, folded into Michael's. Having finished the book, it really is difficult not to see these characters as real. They felt real. Ondaatje created people going on a journey, not just physical, but within themselves as well. I want to know what happened to all of them. How did they live their lives? Were they happy? Also, was Mynah ever Ondaatje's nickname? He took a trip like this when he was young. What interesting characters were on the boat with him? The Cat's Table still has me thinking. A beautiful read, The Cat's Table shows off Ondaatje at his lyrical best.

Books From Before Blogging

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a really long time. This week's topic grabbed me though. This week, the bloggers from The Broke and the Bookish wanted to know the top Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven't Read Yet. Since I recently started looking back at my blogging past, having passed my 10th blogging anniversary, I started to wonder, what books have been sitting on my shelf, unread, for over 10 years? My posts on Suicide Squad and The Humans are going to have to wait, because I need to know this now.

1. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie - I own 4 of Christie's books, why did I stop reading at 3?

2. It, by Stephen King - What is wrong with me? King is one of my favourite authors and I've read loads of his other books, but not It?

3. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - I picked it up on the cheap after having reading Ethan Frome and it's just sat on my shelf.

4. Fury, by Salman Rushdie - Again, I got it on sale, after having read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and it has just sat there.

5. Jacob's Room, by Virginia Woolf - I took a class on Woolf, but Jacob's Room was not one of the books we read. I bought it anyway.

6. Almost all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - My Hubby and I were both reading these books. I was also reading Rice's Mayfair Witches books. Somehow I have never made it past Tale of the Body Thief. I will soon though (maybe).

7. A Perfect Pledge, by Rabindranath Maharaj - I read Maharaj's short story collection The Book of Ifs and Buts and loved it, so I picked up this novel... and it's followed me for years.

8. War and Peace, by Leo Tolsoy (can we include Crime and Punishment & Ulysses here?) - They're long and scary. Based on length alone, I'm more likely to read Crime and Punishment than the other two.

9. The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin - I don't know why. It just hasn't been read yet.

10. From Ink Lake, edited by Michael Ondaatje - It's a collection of Canadian short stories. Seems like my kind of thing, but nope. It's sat on my shelf as long as the rest of them.

I thought there would be more, but last year I started making an effort to read the books that I've had for a long time. That's part of the reason I got around to reading Tale of the Body Theif. Seeing this list has reminded me how much I wanted to read each of these books when I bought them. Hopefully, I get to at least one of them soon.

Random List: Books I Probably Wouldn't Have Read If Not For Required Reading

Inspired by a post I saw on a blog I can't remember (sorry), I decided to create this little list.  I was then reminded I hadn't finished it when I saw The Broke and The Bookish's A Cocktail and Conversation. I decided to post some of my favourite books that were required reading.  I'm not saying I would have never read these books, but way back in my school days, I probably wouldn't have picked them up by choice.  These required books, from both high school and university have stayed with me over the years.  They have led me to favourite authors and enriched my reading life.

1. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

2. Coming Through Slaughter, by Michael Ondaatje

3. A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, by William Wordsworth (I know it's a poem, but I had to include it.)

4. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

5. The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham

6. Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare

7. David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

8. Kindred, by Octavia Butler

9. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

10. Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder

I decided to stick with ten, a nice round number.  I should mention though, that I would never have read Ethel Wilson, Edith Wharton, Henry James or Thomas Hardy without required reading... and probably a whole slew of other fantastic authors.  I know required reading is often dreaded, but so many times I didn't need to worry.

I Want ALL Your Books: The Authors On My Auto Buy List

The topic from The Broke and The Bookish: "Top Ten Authors That I'd Put On My Auto-Buy List (basically an auto-buy list is no questions asked..you love this author so much that no matter what they wrote next you'd buy regardless of genre or subject matter) "

I'm not sure I have ten authors on my Auto-Buy list.  I also don't tend to buy a lot of new releases.  I already own so many books.... I often wait for sales/specials so as to slow the hoarding...  There are also some authors I love that have large back catalogues.  So I aim to eventually buy all their books, but that takes time and money.  

In no particular order, here is my Auto-Buy List.

1. Stephen King (So many books!)

2. Margaret Atwood (See above!)
3. Michael Ondaatje (I haven't read his newest novel yet.)

4. Alice Munro (Working through her many books.)

5. Lauren DeStefano (Probably the newest addition.)

6. Sophie Kinsella (But not Madeline Wickham?  I haven't actually read anything under Wickham, only Kinsella....)

7. J.K. Rowling (I liked The Causal Vacancy)

8 Veronica Roth might make it on to this list.

I couldn't make it to ten.  Maybe I'm too discriminating... maybe I'm too poor.

Who is on your Auto-Buy List?

I Want All Of These!

I would put ALL of them together in my library and they would look gorgeous!  

- It doesn't matter that I already own some of these books or didn't have the intention to read others.  They're so pretty!!!!

* This is probably the only time I will post something like this from a store.

Ten Canadian Authors

This week is Freebie week over at The Broke and TheBookish.  I was inspired by 1girl at AllThe Books I Can Read, who decided that she would name the top ten books by Australian authors.  Naming ten specific books might be a little to difficult for this time of night, but I do want to recommend ten great Canadian authors.  Are they the top ten?  I don’t know, but I certainly like them.

1. Alice Munro
2. Michael Ondaatje
3. Rabindranath Maharaj
4. Sinclair Ross
5. Douglas Coupland
6. Helen Humphreys
7. Timothy Findley
8. Margaret Laurence
9. Gwendolyn MacEwen
10. Lucy Maud Montgomery

Narrowing it down to ten was not easy.  I purposely did not include Margaret Atwood, because I talk about her all the time.  I hope some of these authors make it onto your shelves.

The Top Ten Books I Hope Santa Brings or, I Hope The People Who Are Buying Me Presents Read This List

This week The Brokeand The Bookish want to know what you’re hoping to find under the tree.

1. The Dark Tower:  The Little Sisters of Eluria, by Stephen King
2. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, by Margaret Atwood
3. Women of Sand and Myrrh, by Hanan al-Shaykh
4. Undead and Unwelcome, by MaryJanice Davidson
5. The Cat’s Table, by Michael Ondaatje
6. Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel
7. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 8: Twilight & Last Gleaming, by Joss Whedon
8. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:  Dreadfully Ever After, by Steven Hockensmith
9. A History of God, by Karen Armstrong
10. Robopocalypse, by Daniel H. Wilson

What do you want in your stocking?

Word of the Week!

Two new words this week…

From In The Skin Of A Lion

Pelmanism (pg 189): A system of training to improve the memory; a memory card game where a pack of cards is spread out face down and players try to turn up pairs.

From The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill

Rictus (chpt 5): A bird’s gaping mouth; any open-mouthed expression.
It is used to describe Walter’s non-smile.

Learned any new words from your books this week?

In The Skin Of A Lion

,

I adore Patrick Lewis as a main character. He’s so multi-dimensional and intriguing. I can never guess what he’s going to do next. All the people we meet in this story are held together by Patrick, or rather, their influence is felt by Patrick, making him turn left instead of right. I also think that many of his problems stem from first, the death of his father and second, his relationship with Clara. Of course, if neither of those things happened he wouldn’t be such a great character and this wouldn’t be such a fantastic story.

In The Skin Of A Lion is the second novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, originally published in 1987. I first read this novel about nine years ago and it became one of my favourites. It was for a 20th Century Canadian Literature class I was taking, where I read some really amazing books. Now, almost a decade later, I’ve read each of Michael Ondaatje’s novels and though I’ve enjoyed them, his first two are still my favourites.

I also don’t usually reread novels. I have felt that there are so many good books out there that I should be getting through my ever growing library. After reading some great bloggers and talking with some bookish friends, I’ve decided to reevaluate that stance. Though In The Skin Of A Lion had become one of my favourite books, I had a difficult time remembering details of the plot and all the characters. It all came back to me in my second reading and though I’ve read many books in between the first and second reading, In The Skin Of A Lion still reaches me and I think will stay with me more than before.

I love that this is a story takes place in a city I know. The main setting is Toronto, during the 1930s and I get to read about familiar landmarks being built, like the Bloor Street Viaduct. Ondaatje takes real events and weaves the fictional life of Patrick Lewis into them. It is brilliant and detailed. I also enjoy that a large part of the plot is the plight of immigrant workers, they were paid very little for dangerous work and were often not credited for the work they did. Patrick’s third meeting with Alice takes place at a rally, which different groups of immigrants hold in order to discuss their plight. Though born in Ontario, Patrick and Alice identify with the immigrants and live among them.

In The Skin Of A Lion has been described as post-modern, and in my opinion it is. I know that can put some people off. Don’t let it. This is a great novel with an incredible cast of characters. I’ve been focusing a lot of character development lately and this novel is a great example of how even secondary and minor characters can grow and change over the course of a novel. In The Skin Of A Lion remains one of my favourites.

Where Did You Go? I Want To Know More About You.

This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know who are our Top Ten Minor Characters. How minor are we talking here? A flash in the pan or a secondary character? Something in between? Here are my top ten in no particular order.

1. Ofglen from The Handmaid’s Tale – Ofglen’s influence on Offred is important. I think it impacts her behaviour greatly. I wish Ofglen could have won.

2. Lady Pole from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Though not one of the main characters, Lady Pole does play a major role in the lives of Strange, Norrell and their friends. Lady Pole is the catalyst for so much of what happens.

3. Thresh from The Hunger Games – Who is Thresh? We don’t really know. He’s big and strong and a good representative of his District. He’s seen as a threat. The careers want him on their side, but he wants nothing to do with them. He shows feeling for Rue that the reader didn’t necessarily expect. Without him, the Hunger Games would have ended differently for Katniss and Peeta.

4. Claudine from the Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampires series – Claudine is Sookie’s fairy godmother. She looks out for Sookie. We learn her lineage, what she wants to become and it is sad when she is no longer part of the story.

5. Patrick Danville from The Dark Tower and Insomnia – Patrick is a child when we first meet him in Insomnia. He must be saved because without him, Roland, the Gunslinger, can not fulfill his quest in The Dark Tower. What happened to Patrick, though, between his childhood as a promising artist and his task helping the last gunslinger?

6. Nicholas Temelcoff from In The Skin of a Lion – Without Nicholas we would have no Alice. Without Alice, Patrick Lewis would be a very different man. Nicholas is a catalyst. I wouldn’t have minded if we could have known his family better.

7. Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice / Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Charlotte is a good friend to Lizzy. I wish I could have known more about her motivations in marring Collins. I have to say, I love the role they gave her in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! It’s crazy and she becomes even more of a motivating force for the zombie slayer, Lizzy Bennet.

8. Ruth from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – Ruth sneaks up on you. You think she’s just the mentally challenged stepsister, but she’s so much more.

9. Zeb from The Year Of The Flood – Who is Zeb really? Where did he come from? How did he hook up with the Gardeners? I think he was just using them as a cover for his rebel behaviour. I also think he really cared about Ren, Toby and Amanda.

10. Tina from the Undead series – I’ve always wondered how Tina became subservient to the vampire she created. Was it because of prophecy or was it something else?

Honourable mention to Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. While the other sisters’ lives are paramount to the plot, Mary (the middle sister) gets forgotten. Shouldn’t the mother be trying to marry her off too?

Who are you favourite minor characters?

Word of the Week!

From In The Skin Of A Lion:

Detritus (pg 145): Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier or erosion; debris.
Personal Note: I don’t know if it’s just me, but this is one time where I think they author could have just used the word “debris”. “Detritus and chaos” versus “debris and chaos”, I think it might have been easier for the reader to understand. What do you think?

Sumac Bracelet (pg 146): Sumac – any variety of shrubs or small trees of the Rhus genus, including poison ivy and poison oak. Or, a sour spice popular in the Easter Mediterranean made from the berries of the plant.
Personal Note: I’m inclined to think that the bracelet was made out of poison ivy or oak, but that still seems weird.

Learned any new words from your books this week?

Word of the Week!

This week, one of the words came from an unexpected source…

From Reality Check at the Toronto Star,

Castigating (in the second of the larger paragraphs): To punish, criticize severely, to reprimand severely.

My other source, was much more expected…

From In The Skin Of A Lion,

Ablutions (pg 43): The act of washing or cleansing the body.

Supine (pg 49): To lay back, be lethargic or passive. It’s apparently an old word.

Feldspar (pg 53): Any of a large group of rock-forming minerals that, together, make up about 60% of the earth's outer crust. The feldspars are all aluminum silicates of the alkali metals sodium, potassium, calcium and barium.

This one was a little technical.

Word Of The Week!

I started a Word Of The Week feature/event/whatever last summer. I had been frequently coming across words I didn’t know and thought I’d share them with the blog world. Well, then I went and got myself pregnant. So there was sickness among other things keeping me from continuing to post this. I miss doing it though, so I’m going to start it up again. I will likely only post on weeks where I find a word or words I want to share. Also, my baby is due at the beginning of July, so if it stops for a while again over the summer (likely the whole blog will be on pause), don’t be surprised.

I’ve decided, to make things simpler for myself, to use Wiktionary and Wikipedia as my sources for definitions. If I can not find a definition/explanation on one of these two sites, then I’ll go out into the interwebs to find something. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll try to glean a definition from the context of the story.

From In The Skin Of A Lion:

Naphtha [Lamp] (pg 14)
• Naturally-occurring liquid petroleum.
• Any of a wide variety of aliphatic or aromatic liquid hydrocarbon mixtures distilled from petroleum or coal tar, especially as used in solvents or petrol.
• A naphtha lamp is what young Patrick used to light his home one evening.

From Herman Wouk Is Still Alive:

Assignation (pg 7 – if you print it)
• An appointment for a meeting, generally of a romantic or sexual nature.
• Modern usage of the word has narrowed the meaning to an agreed upon place for illicit sex. The earlier use of the word was broader an in general more innocent.
• A reader might think that assignation is being used in reference to the two women in the van, but it’s actually referring to the elderly couple at the rest stop.

I hope I find the time and the words to post again next week. Anyone else come across a new word or two?

Top Ten Best Debut Books

This is an interesting topic choice from The Broke and The Bookish this week. What are the best first books? 

1. Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling – Will this one be on many lists? Rowling created what I think will be a classic in children’s/young adult literature. That might be presumptuous, but I also believe that it’s true.

2. The Crystal Shard, R.A. Salvatore – I’ve read a lot of Salvatore books, but not as many of my husband. The Crystal Shard was Salvatore’s first novel and his first book about the good drow Drizzt. Drizzt has become one of the most popular characters in Forgotten Realms and appears in over twenty novels. Plus, there are graphic novels and games. The Crystal Shard set Salvatore as one of the best and most popular fantasy writers of his time.

3. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson – It really is too bad that Stieg Larsson isn’t around to see what a phenomenon The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and his sequels have become. If the first book of the Millennium Trilogy wasn’t as amazing as it is, no one would bother with the other books, whether the author was alive or not.

4. Coming Through Slaughter, Michael Ondaatje – This isn’t Ondaatje’s first published work, but it is his first novel and it made me want to read all of his novels.

5. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger – Though I haven’t read her second book, I definitely want to after reading her first. It is an original and romantic spin on time travel.

6. Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen – Austen published her first novel, Sense and Sensibility under a pseudonym, “A Lady”. It was so popular that a second edition was ordered just a few months later.

7. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold – This is not Sebold’s first book, but it is her first novel. The Lovely Bones is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read.

8. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice – Though it was some time after its publication that it became popular, Interview with the Vampire gave Anne Rice her popularity and the ability to write whatever she wanted.

9. Carrie, Stephen King – The only book on the list I haven’t read. I really ought too. I really enjoy King and Carrie was his first and from what other fans say, one of his best.

10. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer – I’m not a super Twilight fan, but I have read all the books. They’re addictive. Though it’s not great literature and I’m not sure it will stand the test of time, Twilight did start a phenomena for this generation of tweens and teens. It also might be attributed with starting the current paranormal craze in YA books. That’s why it comes in at number 10 for me.

An honourable mention to Generation X: Tales For An Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland. This is the only other book I haven’t read, but this book did two things. It put Douglas Coupland on the writing map. It also made “Generation X” or “Gen X” and other similar terms part of pop culture. I don’t know if a writer could have asked for a better first book. I really ought to read it.

I’m eager to see what’s on everyone else’s lists.

15 Authors in 15 Minutes

I found this exercise at Whatcha Readin’, Books? (and decided to put up my results on both my blogs). The instructions are pretty simple and I enjoy the results. So:

• List fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you or who stick with you.
• Select the first fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. No particular order required.
• Don't take too long to think about it.

Here is what who I thought of:

1. Stephen King
2. Margaret Atwood
3. Michael Ondaatje
4. William Shakespeare
5. Douglas Coupland
6. William Wordsworth
7. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
8. Virginia Woolf
9. Mary Shelley
10. R.A. Salvatore
11. Gwendolyn MacEwan
12. H.G. Wells
13. Hanan Al-Shaykh
14. J.K. Rowling
15. Khaled Hosseini

This didn’t take me as long as I expected it too, only about two minutes. I actually had more than 15 for when I finished, but then I looked at the list and saw that I was reaching, trying to be too intellectual about my choices. Of the authors I have here, some of them I’ve read quite a few of their works, others I’ve only read one or two. Each of the authors have influenced me as a reader and a writer.

That was the official (?) exercise. However, instead of just giving you a list of authors, I thought that I’d also give you a title by each of them, if you’re so inclined to try one of them out and are not sure where to start I have a suggestion.

1. The Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger
2. A Handmaid’s Tale
3. In The Skin Of A Lion
4. A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
5. The Gum Thief
6. A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
7. Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner
8. Flush
9. Frankenstein
10. The Crystal Shard
11. Trojan Women
12. The Time Machine
13. Only In London
14. Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone
15. A Thousand Splendid Suns

What authors have influenced you? Leave a link below if you make your own list and I’ll stop by.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favourite Authors

1. Margaret Atwood – For The Handmaid’s Tale; as well as all the other books I’ve read and loved.

2. Michael Ondaatje – For In The Skin Of A Lion; I know The English Patient is the big one that everyone knows, but the former came first and it got me hooked.

3. Gregory Maguire – For Wicked and Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister; I hope the Wicked sequels live up to the first.

4. Stephen King – For The Dark Tower series; I love Roland.

5. William Shakespeare – For your entire body of work. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; I could go on forever, but I don’t have to, your work will.

6. Jane Austen – For the three books I’ve read so far, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion and for the rest I plan on reading.

7. Douglas Coupland – For The Gum Thief; I worked at Staples. I know what box-store monotony can do to a person.

8. Khaled Hosseini – For A Thousand Splendid Suns; I will never forget Mariam and Layla.

9. J.K. Rowling – For the Harry Potter series; I don’t usually like saying things like this, but Harry Potter might just be the Chronicles of Narnia for our generation. (Though, let’s see where we are in twenty years.)

10. Lemony Snicket – For you Unfortunate Series of Events; I loved the Baudelaire children and I’ve wondered what they would be like when they grew up.

This was another difficult one for me. There are so many authors that I love. I have to give honourable mentions to J.R.R. Tolkein, R.A. Salvatore, Charlaine Harris and Sophie Kinsella. I love and have read so many of your books too!

Thanks to The Broke and The Bookish for hosting another great Top Ten Tuesday.  Who tops your list?

Divisadero

I just finished Divisadero, the latest in fiction by Michael Ondaatje. Divisadero is a beautifully written novel. The language is fluid and emotional. Perhaps it is too emotional or sentimental, at least with the last third of the novel. The first part of the novel introduces the reader to Anna and her family in the 1970s and it takes us from their childhood, through their personal evolutions after the family is splintered. I spent the second part of the book longing to know what happens to Anna, Claire and Coop.

In the second section, Ondaatje takes us into the life of the author Anna is studying. The life of this author is connected to Anna’s current lover, who knew him as a boy. It’s an interesting story. The style changes here, the story seems to float along, moving away from the excitement and urgency evoked by the first section.

I feel as though Divisadero should have been two novels. They can remain connected, like In The Skin Of A Lion and The English Patient. There are definite parallels between the life of Anna and the life of the author she studies. There are fractured families, secret love affairs and solitude. The narration changes throughout the entire novel, but that’s easy enough to follow; each character has their own voice. It’s the two stories, yes connected, but not necessarily needing to be in the same book. I might have liked it better it the story came back to Anna, Claire and Coop in a more decisive way. Though I liked it, I find myself unsatisfied with the ending.

As Birds Bring Forth The Sun

A little late in the day, but this is the first of what I hope to be many contributions to Short Story Monday. Every Week I read John Mutford’s reviews of short stories. As I looked at my every-growing library, I realized that I had a lot of Short Story collections, Alice Munro, Carol Sheilds and even Stephen King are just a few of the authors whose short stories I have read and will read. I also have a fair stack of literary journals/magazines, including PRISM international, Other Voices and Geist. So I hope, every week, to add my review to Short Story Monday.

As Birds Bring Forth The Sun by Alistair MacLeod is the first story in a rather thick collection called From Ink Lake edited by Michael Ondaatje. (I know it’s also the title of one of MacLeod’s collections. This is just how I was introduced to it.) As Birds Bring Forth The Sun is part short story, part ghost story and part family legend. Simply, it’s about a love of a man for his dog. Yet, it’s not a simple story. It’s a powerful love. The story of the mysterious grey dog remains a part of the life of the family generations later. MacLeod tells an interesting and thoughtful tale. Though it isn’t long, the story stays with you. You wonder about the secret of the dog.

Anil’s Ghost

Anil’s Ghost really is haunting. I finished it a couple days ago and it’s still with me. Of course, I read In The Skin Of A Lion and that’s still with me too. Michael Ondaatje is one of my favourite authors. I know when I pick up one of his novels, I will not be disappointed.

The reader really feels for Anil. She’s so displaced from her heritage. She just got out of a destructive relationship. She is unsure of her relationship with her “best” friend. She comes to a country that should feel like home and she feels like a foreigner; Anil is foreigner wherever she goes. The story is so intense and mysterious. The ending leaves so many questions.

Something I really liked about Michael Ondaatje’s writing is the way he introduced new characters to the storyline. It was done it through the whole book, but I only became consciously aware of it when he introduced Gamini. Instead of having a character come into the story, then give the reader a little back ground on him, Ondaatje gives each supplementary character their own little story. Before Anil and Sarath come across Gamini, we learn about him in a separate chapter. I noticed this too with the introduction of Palipana, but only with Gamini did I realize he was consistently doing this.

I wonder how the Sri Lankan government responded to this novel…