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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
slow-paced
A beautifully written account of a child's loss of innocence as narrated by his adult self.
Poignant.
Poignant.
This was a very good, very well written story, of a fictionalized Ondaatje and two eleven year and thirteen year old friends who are taking a boat from Ceylon to Britain and all the subterfuge and otherwise they encounter on that boat. It's a very light, very fun book until the last quarter or so. In the end, though, Ondaatje I think fell down when he decided to tie it all together in a way that felt pretty silly, at least to me. It was much too neat, and really detracted from the otherwise-charm of his story.
I am surprised that i really enjoyed this book. It had lots of great stories within the story and great characters.
Maybe if this book was written as short stories, I would have enjoyed it more. I stopped 50% through, which is not my style, but I couldn't suffer any longer. If you're going to write about being on a boat, you should research being on a boat. If you're going to write about social class, do it correctly. I was mostly annoyed, so I just stopped reading. Maybe if I'd made it to the end, I would have a different opinion. We'll never know.
I liked this, the book really pulls you into its isolated little world for a while. I just wish the ending had more definition to it, the story seems to almost peter out. It wasn't disappointing, just kind of...meh. I guess it's meant to be that way because it's like life, isn't it?
I had read that Ondaatje has released a new book. Despite some searching, I couldn't locate it. Failing which, I thought, I would pick up something else - and lo, and behold, we had a copy of 'The Cat's Table' in our library. I was not familiar with this title (despite it being more recently than his famous 'The English Patient'), and its contents were, therefore, a welcome surprise for me.
We follow 11-year-old Mynah/Michael on his first voyage to England from Sri Lanka. He boards the Oronsay on his own, but is quick to befriend fellow children Cassius and Ramaddin. The three form a tight unit, getting up to all sorts of mischief, but also discovering dark secrets aboard this castle on the seas.
Told from the perspective of an older, jaded Michael, the story is non-linear. The author divides the chapters according to themes, thereby connecting dots and inserting anecdotes that will pique the reader's interest. It isn't just a simple coming-of-age story for the boys, but also includes subterfuge, murder and intrigue. And all this, told in the style of a surrealist memoir.
Working with books has spoilt me and I have yet to rid myself of the tendency of going in blind when picking up a book. I didn't read the blurb for this book before turning to the first page. It was partway through when my eyes fell on the back cover only to discover there was no blurb for the book.
The missing blurb and first person, staccato narrative add to the overall sense of realism the author's writing style promotes. You are supposed to believe this is Ondaatje's memoir, and even when you doubt yourself, you continue to soldier on in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery. The revelation that this isn't, in fact, a true story, is at once surprising and deflating.
Let's be honest, no one is likely to believe that the one table the young Michael is sat at could possibly be full of such colourful characters. But, that doesn't stop the author from making the entire work a compelling story. The interplay of vivid memories and vague remembrances add to the realism of the concept. The author constantly hints at a great unknown, one beyond the purview of the 11-year-old child protagonist.
Of course, everything fits too neatly to be real. Not that I am complaining. The book is a pacey, enchanting read. Ondaatje's prose has a lyrical quality that is often mesmerising. Sometimes, unfortunately, the essence of poetry makes the work repetitive - some sentences are used as refrains, but the reader is dragged through the ringer one too many times.
Also, reading this book in the #MeToo era gives some of the characters a creepy vibe. While Ondaatje ensures the few female characters in his cast are relatively badass, there's a disturbing quality to many of the older men vying for these teenagers' affections. Of course, the book is set at a time when every girl from the age of thirteen was seen as marriage material. But, especially in the case of his 'friend' Ramaddhin, the author appears to make his protagonist condone his friend's feelings for a 14-year-old. Yeah... no.
There are also, oftentimes, sentences and analogies that simply don't explain anything. Ondaatje follows these up by saying he knew what they meant, but, I think those explanations were firmly in his head.
I would have enjoyed more of the prisoner and murder story - it felt too much like a throwaway. Also, it would have been better to have foreshadowed such a shocking incident. Had the children really witnessed such a thing, it would/should have pervaded every inch of the book.
At one point in the book, the protagonist mentions RK Narayan’s ‘Malgudy Days’, and I wonder if that was meant to be a meta reference, because much of the writing is reminiscent of the style Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and the like incorporated when writing about British India.
Fact is, despite my criticisms, this was a very clever book. In the past couple of years, readers have had books along similar lines - Roderick Macrae's 'His Blood Project' and Anthony Horowitz's 'The Word is Murder'. Both were compelling reads, but HBP's central plot whittled down to the overuse of sexual assault, while Horowitz's was too obviously satirical. Ondaatje's, from 2011, is certainly mesmeric.
I would recommend this book to everyone. It is such a great read, you won't be able to put it down.
We follow 11-year-old Mynah/Michael on his first voyage to England from Sri Lanka. He boards the Oronsay on his own, but is quick to befriend fellow children Cassius and Ramaddin. The three form a tight unit, getting up to all sorts of mischief, but also discovering dark secrets aboard this castle on the seas.
Told from the perspective of an older, jaded Michael, the story is non-linear. The author divides the chapters according to themes, thereby connecting dots and inserting anecdotes that will pique the reader's interest. It isn't just a simple coming-of-age story for the boys, but also includes subterfuge, murder and intrigue. And all this, told in the style of a surrealist memoir.
Working with books has spoilt me and I have yet to rid myself of the tendency of going in blind when picking up a book. I didn't read the blurb for this book before turning to the first page. It was partway through when my eyes fell on the back cover only to discover there was no blurb for the book.
The missing blurb and first person, staccato narrative add to the overall sense of realism the author's writing style promotes. You are supposed to believe this is Ondaatje's memoir, and even when you doubt yourself, you continue to soldier on in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery. The revelation that this isn't, in fact, a true story, is at once surprising and deflating.
Let's be honest, no one is likely to believe that the one table the young Michael is sat at could possibly be full of such colourful characters. But, that doesn't stop the author from making the entire work a compelling story. The interplay of vivid memories and vague remembrances add to the realism of the concept. The author constantly hints at a great unknown, one beyond the purview of the 11-year-old child protagonist.
Of course, everything fits too neatly to be real. Not that I am complaining. The book is a pacey, enchanting read. Ondaatje's prose has a lyrical quality that is often mesmerising. Sometimes, unfortunately, the essence of poetry makes the work repetitive - some sentences are used as refrains, but the reader is dragged through the ringer one too many times.
Also, reading this book in the #MeToo era gives some of the characters a creepy vibe. While Ondaatje ensures the few female characters in his cast are relatively badass, there's a disturbing quality to many of the older men vying for these teenagers' affections. Of course, the book is set at a time when every girl from the age of thirteen was seen as marriage material. But, especially in the case of his 'friend' Ramaddhin, the author appears to make his protagonist condone his friend's feelings for a 14-year-old. Yeah... no.
There are also, oftentimes, sentences and analogies that simply don't explain anything. Ondaatje follows these up by saying he knew what they meant, but, I think those explanations were firmly in his head.
I would have enjoyed more of the prisoner and murder story - it felt too much like a throwaway. Also, it would have been better to have foreshadowed such a shocking incident. Had the children really witnessed such a thing, it would/should have pervaded every inch of the book.
At one point in the book, the protagonist mentions RK Narayan’s ‘Malgudy Days’, and I wonder if that was meant to be a meta reference, because much of the writing is reminiscent of the style Narayan, Ruskin Bond, and the like incorporated when writing about British India.
Fact is, despite my criticisms, this was a very clever book. In the past couple of years, readers have had books along similar lines - Roderick Macrae's 'His Blood Project' and Anthony Horowitz's 'The Word is Murder'. Both were compelling reads, but HBP's central plot whittled down to the overuse of sexual assault, while Horowitz's was too obviously satirical. Ondaatje's, from 2011, is certainly mesmeric.
I would recommend this book to everyone. It is such a great read, you won't be able to put it down.
Ondaatje's characters are so completely unidentifiable, and his settings are so atmospheric, I am definitely always feeling like a curious, mystified observer of a series of curious vignettes occurring in a shifting timeline. The thing I loved about this book was the point of view of the children and how the inscrutability of the events gradually matured into their significance with the passage of time.
I enjoyed this most particularly because of its narrative structure: the control of revelation and the ordering surprised me over and over, but it always felt purposeful. I still love what Ondaatje does with his sentences. Very glad I picked this up.