The Cat's Table - (Vintage International) by Michael Ondaatje (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the "cat's table"--as far from the Captain's Table as can be--with a ragtag group of "insignificant" adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: they are first exposed to the magical worlds of jazz, women, and literature by their eccentric fellow travelers, and together they spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. By turns poignant and electrifying, The Cat's Table is a spellbinding story about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood, and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.

Review Quotes

"Wondrous. . . . A new form of literary magic." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"Mesmerizing. . . . As he did in his great novel, The English Patient, Ondaatje conjures images that pull strangers into the vivid rooms of his imagination, their detail illumined by his words." --The New York Times Book Review

"Lithe and quietly profound: a tale about the magic of adolescence and the passing strangers who help tip us into adulthood in ways we don't become aware of until much later." --The Washington Post

"Enthralling and poignant. . . . A captivating reminder that it can take decades to comprehend the past, let alone to make amends with it." --The Seattle Times

"To capture truly any moment of life is an achievement of art. To find captured, in a single work, such disparate experiences--of youth and age, of action and reflection, of innocence and experience--is a rare pleasure. If each of Ondaatje's novels is like a new flower, then this one smells particularly sweet." --Claire Messud, The New York Review of Books

"For my money, Michael Ondaatje is the greatest living writer in the English language. . . . The wide-eyed love of the world and its wonders, the kindness he offers to his characters and readers, the elegant lyricism of his sentences, the joy of storytelling--all that is great in his other books is fully present in The Cat's Table. . . . Mr. Ondaatje restores belief in the beauty and power of literature and, by extension, of humanity. In this dark, terrible world, The Cat's Table has healing powers." --Aleksandar Hemon, WSJ.com

"Ondaatje teaches us that the most marvelous sights are those most often overlooked. It's a lesson that turns this supple story, like the meals at the cat's table, into a feast." --Los Angeles Times

"A lovely, shimmering book. . . . Ondaatje succeeds so well in capturing the anticipation and inquisitiveness of boyhood." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"A great master may have written his finest book in a long career of fine books." --Alan Heathcock, Salon

"Ondaatje brings all his literary trademarks to The Cat's Table, from luminous prose to an amazing sense of economy. He makes every character, image and line resonate like a tuning fork. . . . Elegant and elegiac, The Cat's Table is the author's most intimate work." --The Miami Herald

"Michael Ondaatje has written some of the most inimitable works in the English language; The Cat's Table yet again dignifies literature in every important way possible. This novel is a completely original orchestration of a coming-of-age story, memoir, maritime adventure as powerful as Conrad or Stevenson. The lyricism of the prose is astonishing." --Howard Norman, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"A gorgeous piece of writing. . . . Ondaatje has always been capable of conjuring up mesmerizing images to draw in a reader, but with The Cat's Table he holds back just enough so the lyricism doesn't overwhelm the story." --The Christian Science Monitor

"A joy and a lark to read. . . . . The Cat's Table expertly strums the cords of autobiography without overdoing it. As a result [the book] vibrates with the borrowed intimacy of real life." --The Boston Globe

"Masterful. . . . Haunting and seductive." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Elegant and beautiful . . . As in Anil's Ghost, The Cat's Table employs a deceptively light touch, hiding a carefully constructed and tender hymn to the enigma of journey." --The Independent (London)

"The Cat's Table is just as skillfully wrought as Ondaatje's magnum opus [The English Patient], but its picaresque childhood adventure gives it a special power and intimacy. . . . He is a master at creating characters, whom he chooses to present, memorably, as individuals. This choice is of a piece with the freshness and originality that are the hallmarks of The Cat's Table." --The Wall Street Journal

"Impressive. . . . Wonderful. . . . The beauty of Ondaatje's writing is in its swift accuracy; it sings with the simple precision of the gaze. . . . Richly enjoyable, often very funny, and gleams like a really smart liner on a sunny day." --Philip Hensher, The Daily Telegraph (London)

"Ondaajte couldn't write a banal sentence if he tried. . . . . On its surface, The Cat's Table may be a magically real reworking of a classic boy's adventure tale. Deep down, it has the poignancy of a life's summation." --Pico Iyer, Time

"Mr. Ondaatje's greatest talents lie in simply constructed, minimalist descriptions. His images are so meticulously created that the most obvious statements present themselves as sublime realizations. He doesn't disappoint." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Ondaatje is justly recognized as a master of literary craft. . . . The novel tells of a journey from childhood to the adult world, as well as a passage from the homeland to another country, something of a Dantean experience." --Annie Proulx, The Guardian (UK)

"Michael Ondaatje never writes the same book twice [though] what remains constant is precise, luminous language. . . . Ondaatje's vision, though dark, is unfailingly generous and humane." --The Oregonian

"Elegant, evocative. . . . Whatever its autobiographical roots, there's a strong sense that this story--one with echoes of Conrad and Kipling--is a tale Michael Ondaatje someday was destined to tell. It's a pleasure for us, his readers, to share in that telling." --Bookreporter.com

"[Ondaatje's] sentences have a sonorous capacity, a soft but urgent tone that coaxes rather than demands attention. Acrobatics are eschewed for a supple, precise flexibility. It's a gift shared by other English-language writers who spent significant time surrounded by diverse tongues: E.M. Forster, for example, and Graham Greene." --The Denver Post

About the Author

Michael Ondaatje is the author of five previous novels, a memoir, a nonfiction book on film, and several books of poetry. The English Patient won the Booker Prize; Anil's Ghost won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Médicis. Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje now lives in Toronto.

www.michaelondaatje.com