In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

[Shevek]

I read this a week or two ago after postponing reading it for a long time and I am not sure what to think. On the one hand, being interested in Ontario history, I really enjoyed the vivid depictions of 1930s-40s Toronto. I loved the character of Patrick Lewis and how his urban experiences circled back to his rural place of upbringing. But I'm not sure how I feel about the narrative style. There are multiple character perspectives, but unlike other books I've read in this style, Ondaatje's own voice as an author frequently imposes. I guess this is part of the point of the book, that certain voices have been silenced and marginalized by a single narrator, but it left me feeling... unsatisfied.

What do you think of the book in general?

[JBI]

He is following a gimmick called historeographic metafiction (Linda hutcheon's term) which was quite popular when it was written. Doctorow's Ragtime will be another example of it.

I will admit to disliking the book as it feels too crafted and too conscious of paying lip service to reigning ideologies (Canadian mosaic identity for one). It ends up coming off quite ideologically charged which is sickening to get through as each line preaches.

The good part of the technique is the use of Cubist and the use of light (a home to Caravaggio from whom he names a character) which is clever but just a small fraction of the text.

Ondaatje was never a favourire of mine, and his career has been ebbing for the last 10 years. The problem is people read the text as a history which is a risky business.

As for the sites in Toronto mentioned in the book, they are quite remote from the city centre, and few people venture there. Much of the geography is impossible in the sense that he goes around the road patterns of the city, and invents his own map, as are going through those pipes as a person cannot fit in there.

[Charles Darnay]

Linda Hutcheon is a great literary scholar/professor.

As for Ondaatje, I enjoy his writing style and his descriptiveness, but I don't think he is a good storyteller. While I can appreciate the quality of his books from a literary standpoint, I have not enjoyed anything I read by him. In The Skin of a Lion is a perfect example. He creates wonderful characters but does nothing with them.

[JBI]

Linda Hutcheon is a great literary scholar/professor.

As for Ondaatje, I enjoy his writing style and his descriptiveness, but I don't think he is a good storyteller. While I can appreciate the quality of his books from a literary standpoint, I have not enjoyed anything I read by him. In The Skin of a Lion is a perfect example. He creates wonderful characters but does nothing with them.

He is paying lip service to ideology to make the "great Canadian multicultural novel" which I think was a flop, but the academies praised as such.

Is it in that book that the main character has a weird wet dream about the female lead?

[Shevek]

There are lots of dreams and a lot of sex, so I would assume that probably happened.

[ChicagoReader]

Haven't read the book being discussed, but I've read The English Patient, Coming through Slaughter, and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, Coming through Slaughter being my favorite. I can agree with the other posters to an extent, but I've enjoyed his work so far. His prose is beautiful, in my opinion, and I think he's good at painting a large picture with few words.