Books by Michael Ondaatje
A Sri Lankan-born Canadian, Michael Ondaatje is one of the most renowned contemporary Canadian poet and writer. Ondaatje's literary oeuvre includes fiction, autobiography, poetry and film. His musical prose and poetry are created from a blend of myth, history, jazz, memoirs, and other forms. Ondaatje has published 13 books of poetry and won the Governor General's Award for ‘The Collected Works of Billy the Kid’ (1970) and ‘There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do’ (1979).
Ondaatje is known for his works that dissolve the lines between prose and poetry, past and present, image and intellect, thought and feeling. As per American poet Diane Wakoski: “Moving in and out of imagined landscape, portrait and documentary, anecdote or legend, Ondaatje writes for the eye and the ear simultaneously.” Many critics have noted that although Ondaatje’s poetry constantly progresses as he embraces threat and formal experimentation, his work upholds attention on the myths that root deep in a common cultural experience. Here is a look at some books by Michael Ondaatje you need to read.
The English Patient (1992)
It is set in an Italian Villa where four people are brought together at the end of World War II. These characters include a Canadian thief whose hands are damaged, a Sikh British-army sapper, a badly burnt Englishman, and his Canadian nurse, Hannah. All the characters in the novel are skillfully intertwined to tell a moving story.
Pic credit: Bloomsbury
Running in the Family (1982)
It is a travel narrative and family memoir by Ondaatje. In the late 1970s, he returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. Through this book, he records his journey through the heat and intoxicating fragrances. Simultaneously, Ondaatje retraces the elaborate mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family.
Pic credit: Bloomsbury
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970)
Billy the Kid was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at the age of 21. The novel traces his passage across the blasted landscape of 1880 New Mexico.
Pic credit: Vintage
Divisadero (2007)
It is an enthralling novel about family, distance and love in its various forms. It centres on one family as a unit before rupturing into their separate lives. This is a story of possession and loss, about the often conflicting demands of family, love, and memory.
Pic credit: Bloomsbury
The Cat’s Table (2011)
It is set in the 1950s and revolves around an eleven-year-old boy onboard a huge liner in Colombo bound for England. The memories of this journey remain a strong part of his consciousness as he reimagines these events in adulthood.
Pic credit: Vintage
In the Skin of a Lion (1987)
The novel is set in the 1920s and centres on Patrick Lewis, who arrives in the bustling city of Toronto, leaving behind his Canadian wilderness home. He has his adventures like searching for a missing millionaire, tunnelling beneath Lake Ontario, and falling in love. It is a novel that challenges the boundary between history and myth.
Pic credit: Picador
Coming Through Slaughter (1976)
It is based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of the turn of the 20th century New Orleans. Through a collage of memoirs, interviews, imaginary conversations and monologues, Ondaatje builds a picture of a man who would work by day at a barbershop and by night release his talent to wild audiences.
Pic credit: Bloomsbury
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