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The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje

Start date: December 1, 2012

Finish date: January 31, 2013

Why we're reading this: Winner of the Bookmarks book from any issue poll
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Jan 11, 2012 Michelle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world-in-books, 2012-read, tofb-2012

Disjointed.

I read this book as it is a 2 seed in the 2012 Tournament of Books and for some reason I thought it was short listed for the Booker. Apparently it was nominated for a Gillar and not a Booker. It was also reccommeded by Books on the Nightstand.

This is the story of a boy from Siri Lanka in the early 1950 who is traveling on a 21 day ocean voyage to England to live with his mother. Not much is know about the boy and why he lived with his uncle and not much more is learned about him duri ...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Doreen rated it liked it · review of another edition

In 1954 an eleven-year-old named Michael takes a 21-day sea voyage from Ceylon to England. He joins two other young boys, Cassius and Ramadhin, in exploring the ship.

For meals the three boys are seated at the cat's table, the least privileged place most opposite the captain's table, but "What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power" (75). From a position of obscurity, the lives of others can be observed: the boys "witness the fragmentary tableaux" In 1954 an eleven-year-old named Michael takes a 21-day sea voyage from Ceylon to England. He joins two other young boys, Cassius and Ramadhin, in exploring the ship.

For meals the three boys are seated at the cat's table, the least privileged place most opposite the captain's table, but "What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power" (75). From a position of obscurity, the lives of others can be observed: the boys "witness the fragmentary tableaux" (128) around them. By snooping and eavesdropping, the boys encounter the interesting and the important: "So we came to understand that small and important thing, that our lives could be large with interesting strangers who would pass us without any personal involvement" (129),

Aboard the ship, the boys are "for the first time by necessity in close quarters with adults" (27). They are befriended by a coterie of colourful, quirky characters who give them glimpses of the adult world and provide them with lessons in music, literature, biology, history, and life. The encounters with adults expose them to friendship, longing, dishonesty, secrecy, and sorrow.

The book is not just a memoir of a boyhood adventure. It is a coming-of-age story. The trip is a metaphor of Michael's rebirth; the Suez Canal which connects the west and the east can easily be seen as a birth canal between childhood and adulthood. Michael may be "startled, half formed" (84) but he tries "to understand and piece together the adult world, wondering what was going on there, and why" (27). Passing strangers help him in ways he does not fully understand until adulthood.

As a pre-adolescent on the sea voyage, Michael takes on the role of a careful observer. This role serves him well in his adult life and career; he becomes a writer

According to Ondaatje, "the novel sometimes uses the colouring and locations of memoir and autobiography" (267). It seems he has returned to his own sea voyage from Ceylon to England and has parlayed it into a book to convey themes about the benefits of the overlooked position and hindsight.

The problem is that Ondaatje's book left me unengaged. The vignettes were disjointed and left me feeling likewise. I've enjoyed this writer's other novels, but this one left me disagreeing with the book jacket's description that it was the work of "a novelist at the height of his powers."

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Apr 03, 2012 Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Actually I would give this book 4 1/2 stars. It is a very quiet, thoughtful story that kept me steadily reading. The plot concerns an 11 year old boy from Ceylon who is the narrator of the story. He is put on an ocean liner by his relatives in Ceylon, with whom he has been living, in order that he can join his mother in London. His many adventures aboard the ship influence the rest of his life.

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Jan 27, 2012 Lyn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

WHY do authors read their own works?? I find it completely baffling; they are the professionals at writing, yes, but for heaven's sake, get a proffesional to READ it!! Authors screw up their own wonderful works by doing this, more times than I can tell you.....why?? I'm pressing on, but so far I am not impressed by MO's delivery...so frustrating! ...more

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