Rated: 1 Star
From: Library
It's my own fault I ended up trying to read this book. I had forgotten that this is the same author that had written The English Patient. Struggling through to the end left me exhausted and out of breath. What a piece of work!
My journal entry for The English Patient
If I had a better memory for author's names I wouldn't have touched this book with a 10 foot pole. Like the English Patient it's a book about nothing that goes nowhere. Yes Michael Onjaatje writes beautiful prose. But he can't tell a story. I'll bet I remember from now on.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2011: Michael Ondaatje's finely wrought new novel chronicles a young boy's passage from Sri Lanka to London onboard the Oronsay, both as it unfolds and in hindsight. Glancing off the author's own biography, the story follows 11-year-old Michael as he immerses himself in the hidden corners and relationships of a temporary floating world, overcoming its physical boundaries with the expanse of his imagination. The boy's companions at the so-called Cat's Table, where the ship’s unconnected strays dine together, become his friends and teachers, each leading him closer to the key that unlocks the Oronsay's mystery decades later. Elegantly structured and completely absorbing, The Cat's Table is a quiet masterpiece by a writer at the height of his craft. --Mia Lipman
Trust me, if there is a mystery it's buried so deep in smarmy prose that it's impossible to find.
