Literary Fiction | Book Chatter

The Cat’s Table
By Michael Ondaatje
(Knopf, Hardcover, 9780307700117, October 2011, 288pp.)

The Short of It:

An intimate, deeply introspective coming-of-age tale with a bit of adventure thrown in.

The Rest of It:

Years ago, I read The English Patient and the act of reading it, physically pained me. Back then, I was a reader, but not a serious reader and I didn’t have much patience for picking a book apart to get its meaning. So when I heard that Ondaatje had a new book out, I snapped it up for two reasons. Because it sounded really, really good, and because I wanted to give this author another shot.

The story takes play aboard the ocean liner Oronsay, as it makes its 1954 voyage from Ceylon to England. On board, is Michael, age 11 who for the most part, is making the 3-week trip by himself. For a boy his age, a trip like this is nothing but an adventure and so when he is seated at the “Cat’s” table, which is the less desirable dining location and the opposite of the Captain’s table, he sees nothing wrong with it. In fact, this is where he meets other boys his age, Cassius (the troublemaker) and Ramadhin (a thoughtful, but rather sickly boy).

The passages on the ship are delicately handled, in that what appears to be brief, inconsequential exchanges, are in fact life-changing interactions that shape and form these boys on their way to adulthood. It should be noted, that I did not see it this way until finishing the book and taking several weeks to think about these characters. At first, the story seemed unremarkable to me except that it takes place on a ship which is not the usually setting for a coming-of-age story. The setting immediately pulls you in, but Michael’s role as observer grows tiresome, until you begin to hear him speak as adult.

I am glad that I waited to write this review, as my feelings about the book have changed numerous times. It’s a beautifully written novel, almost lyrical at times but it’s the type of novel that reads easy, almost too easy only for you to realize later (in my case, much later) that you enjoyed the book quite a bit. If you like subtle, deeply introspective stories, then you will enjoy this one.

Source: Borrowed
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The Quickening Maze
By Adam Foulds
(Penguin (Non-Classics), Paperback, 9780143117797, June 2010, 272pp.)

The Short of It:

Here, madness and brilliance collide in an ethereal, tenuous manner but ultimately, the book falls short of its mark.

The Rest Of It:

This story is based on real events and is about John Clare, famed nature poet, and his stay at High Beach, a mental institution located on the outskirts of London in 1837. Along with Clare, we meet Alfred Tennyson who lives nearby and a host of characters including the hospital’s owners and their two young daughters.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, I had high hopes. I cannot argue its beauty, as it is beautifully written, but the story wandered in places and never really went anywhere. However, the world that Foulds creates is quite impressive. Mental institutions of the time were horrid places. Even for the well off, the treatment of the patients within often bordered on abuse, which lends the book a “forbidden” quality that is slightly off-putting.

The idea of a famed poet, wandering around a mental institution opens the door to all sorts of experiences, yet… the experiences are brief, not particularly life changing and sometimes, given the nature of Clare’s condition, I was not sure if something was really happening, or if it was just taking place in Clare’s mind. I appreciated this aspect of the story, because these people were mad! You can’t rely on any of them to tell the story and so you are constantly flipping pages and rereading passages to see if you read it right the first time around.

I considered this book to be an okay read, but not great. I felt as if the story went off in too many directions and sort of left Clare’s story hanging. There is a lot going on with the children, which is interesting to a degree but that path was also never fully developed. There is a bit of romance too, which seems oddly placed in a book about madness and although there was poetry, there wasn’t enough (in my opinion). What could have been a really great read, was just okay.

This was my pick for book club but I was not able to make the meeting. I was told, that it was a good discussion though which doesn’t surprise me as there is plenty to discuss.

Source: Purchased
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