The Cat’s Table – June CC Book Club Selection

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>“The Cat’s Table” certainly is a mysterious book! I think that’s one of the reasons I like it so much.</p>

<p>I don’t think the character Michael fabricated details of the voyage, as wild as they were (and the dog story, especially, was pretty wild!). </p>

<p>I think Michael was so innocent of the ways of the world when the voyage occurred that he couldn’t put the events of it in any kind of context. He didn’t realize how unusual they were at the time. </p>

<p>He missed home overwhelmingly (on page 53 he makes the strange-seeming comment that “grandeur had been taken away” when he left Ceylon), and his first years in England were undoubtedly overwhelming too. Perhaps, oddly enough, the trip seemed placid to him in comparison to what his first years in England were like. After all, on the trip he was happy.</p>

<p>On page 13 of the book, the narrator says, “On the Oronsay…there was the chance to escape all order.” The world of the ship was a world he could barely make sense of.</p>

<p>On page 27, he refers to his previous life on Ceylon as that of “a contented feral child.” He was such a relative innocent that his mind could hardly grasp the sophistication of the world of the ship and its inhabitants.</p>

<p>In some ways, I am reminded of the book “Fatelessness” by the Hungarian writer Imre Kert</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>

@mythmom

The idea of the unreliable narrator is a staple since Poe, brought to greatest fruition by the modernist British author, Ford Madox Ford, in his brilliant novel, THE GOOD SOLDIER.

The dust jacket on my copy of Cat’s Table has a quote “Heir-unapparent to Faulkner…”. I’ve only read SOUND AND FURY, but I didn’t really see a comparison to Faulkner, but when I gave it some thought, Ford Madox Ford and THE GOOD SOLDIER did come to mind. So I find it interesting that you would mention him right out of the box ;).</p>

<p>I will be thinking about the questions! Loved the book and actually managed to fit it in despite the schedule…</p>

[BUandBC82]

<p>Thanks for getting us started, Mary. </p>

<p>I was about halfway through the book when I finally decided I liked it. It took me a while to realize we were just going to get snippets of people’s lives.

As members of an audience we should never feel ourselves wiser than they; we do not have more knowledge than the characters have about themselves.

I think this warning was given so far into the book to remind us that we never really know the complete story of others. We can be fooled in books to believe we know a lot about characters; we hear the thoughts of main characters and we often see them through the eyes of others. On the Oronsay and later in life, Michael learns there is much more to a person that what may have originally been presented or interpreted. Ondaatje is telling us that everyone has a story beyond the surface. </p>

<p>

@mythmom

The reader may know more of a character than the writer, too. Thus, the “reality” becomes a collage of writers’ intentions, character’ own willful ownership of their stories, and the readers’ impressions, and for each reader, the collage will differ.

Yes, every reader brings there own experiences into their interpretation of a character.</p>

<p>Perspective is important and personal. Remember when Michael went back into the art gallery to look at Cassius’ pictures of the Oronsay’s trip through the Suez Canal. Cassius’ perspective was the same as Michael’s. The point of view of a child looking down at the people and places they were passing. The view from somewhere else on the ship, or from a person of a different age, or from someone on the ground, would have all presented a different interpretation.</p>

<p>On page 220, when Michael is reading Miss Laqueti’s notes to Emily, there is a discussion about tapestries and all the different people, beyond the artist, who were responsible for making the tapestry. While looking at a tapestry, Horace says to Miss Laqueti, “All of this is only one small room in a life”. He then goes on to show her the underside of a tapestry saying, “This is where all the power is, you see. Always. The Underneath.” Again, Ondaatje telling us there is a story beyond the surface.</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>With regard to the author vs the reader understanding the character, and the mention of Faulkner…in Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” (I haven’t read “The Sound and the Fury” yet), the reader is never provided with any clear information about what kind of person the deceased mother was. Information is concealed within the text, though. It’s hinted at, subtly; there are certain clues, if you read closely enough.</p>

<p>I know what you mean about liking “Cat’s Table” better starting at the halfway point, BUandBC82. The halfway point is about the point at which the experiences and reflections of the adult Michael start to come more into play. In the first half of the book, the reader is more a clueless “experiencer” like the youthful Michael himself.</p>

[peachblossom]

<p>Newbie here… I just last week came across this thread, and decided to read The Cat’s Table. Just finished it last night, so I haven’t had a lot of “digestion” of the novel. But, near the end, the story implies that it is possible that the deaf girl and her father survived, though separately. It isn’t clear - I find it quite unlikely to think either of them did survive, and also quite unlikely that the father would allow his daughter to risk her life in such a way. The book implies that she actually is a good swimmer, so maybe the father did sanction this escapade… Any thoughts??</p>

[Mary13]

<p>Hi peachblossom, welcome!</p>

<p>I thought the drowning (or possibly not drowning) scene was intense and beautifully written. What transpires is completely from Michael’s imagination, which he admits: “I imagined the two of them, Niemeyer and his daughter, in the dark water—this still-dangerous and to us unforgiven man who would eternally be that: a Magwitch and his daughter—struggling in the water that was rolling with noise, and heaving from the propeller of the ship that had abandoned them there." (p. 258). He goes on, using the immediacy of the present tense:</p>

<p>

Niemeyer holds her face in his shackled hands, as he did for that final second on the deck rail to signal their departure. He puts his mouth on hers and she opens her mouth, and with her tongue she pushes the key that had been clenched in her teeth forward, into his keeping. They have difficulty holding on to each other, their bodies being tossed around, and in all that dark sea, the key is something too small and delicate to be passed from hand to hand.

</p>

<p>I think the delivery of the key and Asuntha’s swim toward shore is simply wishful thinking on Michael’s part. He imagines a scenario where she survives, because that is what he so desperately wants to believe happened.</p>

<p>As for whether Niemeyer would put his daughter in that predicament…his desperation combined with her quiet dutifulness could have led them to hatch a plan that, you know, sounded like a good idea at the time. :)</p>

<p>Funny… I made a Dickens allusion in my earlier post because the Baron and Michael reminded me of Fagin and Oliver. And here Michael alludes to Dickens when comparing Niemeyer and Asuntha to Magwitch and Estella. As a possible hint to the fates of the former pair, it’s worth noting that in Great Expectations, Magwitch dies, but before he draws his last breath, he learns–to his joy–that his daughter lives.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>

@mythmom

Perhaps this warning comes as late as it does so the reader takes her own journey from the “childhood” of believing in the authenticity of the narrative to the “adulthood” of questioning narrative. So the journey becomes our journey.

</p>

<p>I really like this idea. And I think the “journey” of reading The Cat’s Table is like the trip through the Palace of Ship Owners:</p>

<p>

[quote]
…there is something about the image that I have held on to for all these years, as if it explains how we approach the future, or look back at the past. A person begins on the ground floor of that palace, looking at a few na</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>Mary, you said you think that the character Michael “wove a magical tale.” </p>

<p>However, Michael’s tone is so sober and contemplative…he seems to be seeking understanding, rather than seeking to entertain…and there are so many elements of the story that are very sad and poignant. The story seems much richer and deeper than something he would make up to enthrall others.</p>

<p>IF Michael the character is making up the Oronsay story, is he also making up contemporary stories like the story of Heather Cave and Ramadhin, and the story of the adult Emily in the Canadian cabin? To me, the tone of those narratives are the same as the tone of the Oronsay narrative.</p>

<p>I think the author Ondaatje himself was weaving a magical tale, and having fun with the creation of events and details. I also think that whether or not the character Michael’s “memories” were literally true is somewhat beside the point. What really matters are the psychological truths of the book.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>

@NJTheatreMOM

I also think that whether or not the character Michael’s “memories” were literally true is somewhat beside the point. What really matters are the psychological truths of the book.

</p>

<p>I absolutely agree. And I think something can be magical and heartbreaking at the same time. (That’s childhood for many.) I’m not saying that Michael made up the Oronsay story, only that certain elements of it were “larger than life.” As mythmom wrote above, “Children understand reality even more selectively but more vividly, which perfectly mirrors the narrative style of the book.”</p>

<p>I think the people on the boat and in Michael’s life were very real (if perhaps not the details of their experiences) and you are so right about Michael seeking understanding—especially of himself. He writes at one point, “I am someone who has a cold heart” (p. 141). That’s not at all how he came across to me. Or to Emily, I would wager.</p>

[BUandBC82]

<p>I like idea of the book sharing Michael’s journey from childhood to adulthood, with the continuance of the journey through adulthood. </p>

<p>After reading Mary’s post (#27), I thought more of Miss Lasqueti and her letter to Emily. It is another character looking back in time. As I thought more of this, the word wisdom came to mind. Without making it sound trite, I think Ondaatje is showing us the wisdom of age, how we learn and look at events differently with the benefit of age and experience.</p>

<p>Perhaps the tapestry is the common link. There are many layers to a tapestry…the lives and stories of the people who make the tapestry, the scene depicted on the tapestry, the threads used to make the scene, and the various interpretations and meaning of those who gaze at the tapestry. Mary and NJTheatremom both mention the “weaving of a magical tale”, which ties in beautifully to my tapestry theme. Ondaatje is making a tapestry.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>^ Great post, BUandBC82. I love the tapestry image! And there’s a scene in the book where that image dovetails perfectly with your comment that “Ondaatje is showing us the wisdom of age, how we learn and look at events differently with the benefit of age and experience.”</p>

<p>It’s when Michael visits Miss Lasqueti in her cabin (p. 209):</p>

<p>

Emily and I sit upright on the only chairs in the room, while Miss Lasqueti positions herself at the foot of the bed, leaning forward to talk. The cabin is much larger than mine, full of unusual objects. There is something like a heavy carpet beside her. I am told later that this is a tapestry.

</p>

[mythmom]

<p>I can’t help but hear “Odyssey” in the name of the boat. I know it’s not exactly the same, but the echoes overlap.</p>

<p>If that is the case, Ondaatje is linking is stories to others that exist on the margin of myth/history. We used to think the Odyssey was fabrication until Schliemann, in 1889, retraced the entire journey and found a site, that at level 7a, sure seems like the actual Troy.</p>

<p>As faithful as he may want to be to his recollections, if Ondaatje tells us that he is telling the tale to his children, surely he must entertain to keep your attention. (A sort of How I Met Your Mother, if you will.) Ondaatje must entertain us. Tales are selection and thus, must always, heighten and distort. The film (didn’t read the book) BIG FISH did such a good job of looking at this issue.</p>

<p>But again, since our lives are only tales we tell ourselves about too many events to remember (and thus, we must filter, trim and tailor memories to fit the tale) our own recollections are always selective and distorted.</p>

<p>I published an essay comparing my mother’s recollection of events with my own (she told me I remembered everything wrong and red penciled my first draft, and by doing so gave me a more complex essay) and won my only writing award with that essay. I analyzed why I had selected to forget the things I had. The event happened when I was 13, and her recollection was fuller and actually more complimentary to me and critical of herself. (HAHA, then she wanted me to publish the essay under a pseudonym.)</p>

<p>The point is, I had no idea I didn’t remember everything that happened.</p>

<p>So we can’t assume that Michael’s recollections are true, even if he is being truthful.</p>

<p>But since the days of the balanced, impartial, omniscient nineteenth century narrator are gone, won’t this always be the case with narrative? It’s just exacerbated in this case because Michael was so young when his journey occurred.</p>

<p>The Thousand and One Arabian Nights Tales brilliants taught us that a story is woven to keep an audience. In this, Michael and Ondaatje must be the same (and in fact, he is Michael Ondaatje, to underscore the point.)</p>

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

<p>Mary13- your first post was stunning. Mythmom- wow, BU and BC love the tapestry image (Ondaatje intentionally incorporates art into his writing, hence NJTheatremom’s favorite passage about the Suez canal, and Cassius’s depiction)
There is so much within this complex novel, great book discussion material-thanks to NJTheatermom for backing it so passionately. </p>

<p>Regarding “magical realism”, in agreement with Mary13’s analysis. Recently participated in real life book discussion about “Like Water for Chocolate”- more outrageous “magical” moments- ie butter running down the stairs, ect. </p>

<p>The “magical realism” moment in the novel for me, was when the “dog attacked the Baron” Huh? And, then I went with the flow, knowing as Mary13 said, the Ondaajte, gave us plenty of “warnings that some things may be untrue, that what appears so, may not be , there are things going on beneath the surface”, some of these “characterizations may be ‘one sided’”. How refreshing and complicated it makes our journey as a reader!
Recently, I read a book which summarized each character’s life at the end. Neat and tidy. Easy. This book is just the opposite, and it’s strength. </p>

<p>It’s a bit messy- did the boys hear what they thought they heard when hiding in the lifeboat? Did Miss Lasqueti, throw that gun overboard? What crime did the criminal commit? </p>

<p>BUBC, I don’t think “magical realism’s” only intent is to entertain, even fairy tales, have deep meaning and “wisdom”. </p>

<p>Mary13, your comment about how Emily views Michael, reminds me of this statement “For years Emily had been the way I discovered what adults thought of me. I’d tell her of my adventures and listen to what she thought.” …she was my Machang (Sri Lankan term for “bro” “buddy”)</p>

<p>“On the Oronsay, however, there was the chance to escape all order, And I reinvented myself in this seemingly imaginary world, with its ship dismantlers, and tailors, and adult passengers who, during the evening celebrations, staggering around in giant animal heads …”</p>

<p>Fantastic.
What a journey, magical or not, I enjoyed every minute of it.</p>

[SouthJerseyChessMom]

<p>[Michael</a> Ondaatje: “The Cat’s Table” | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR](<a href=“Diane Rehm”>Michael Ondaatje: "The Cat's Table" - Diane Rehm)</p>

[sylvan8798]

<p>

3. Why do you think the opening passages of the book are told in third person?

I went back and reread the opening chapter after finishing the book. To me it seems as if Michael the narrator in narrating this passage from the distance of space and time is expressing the disconnection we all have with our far distant childhood selves. Who was I at 11? Looking back, would I even recognize myself? Would I like that person if I met her/him now? Would I recognize the roots of the person she became? He says:

I try to imagine who the boy on the ship was.

</p>

[Mary13]

<p>SJChessMom, thank you for the interview link! I am looking forward to listening to it later today.</p>

<p>

@mythmom

So we can’t assume that Michael’s recollections are true, even if he is being truthful.

</p>

<p>Well put – and that describes all of us, not just Michael (as the story about your essay shows). I find it a bit…unsettling…to think that what I remember about the past may not be the way it was at all. (My husband often teasingly tells me, “You are not authorized to write my biography” because our versions of events over the years sometimes vary significantly. I guess life is one long Rashomon effect.)</p>

<p>

@sylvan8798

I went back and reread the opening chapter after finishing the book. To me it seems as if Michael the narrator in narrating this passage from the distance of space and time is expressing the disconnection we all have with our far distant childhood selves.

</p>

<p>I agree. And I think by using it as the opening of the book, he is taking an objective “deep breath,” so to speak, before he leaps into the more intimate first person.</p>

[NJTheatreMOM]

<p>Another interesting question is why the section of the book about Asuntha’s personal history is written as if by an objective third person, not as if it is something the character Michael is reporting about having leaned.</p>

<p>SJChessMom, I read the interview script you provided the link to, and one thing that struck me was Ondaatje’s saying that he never did a significant amount of reading until he moved to Canada!</p>

<p>I found another piece online that also talks about the oral tradition that Ondaatje grew up in. It mentions that he once wrote a semi-autobiographical work about his own family that contained material that was not strictly true!</p>

<p>"This no man’s land between real and invented lives is one in which Ondaatje is quite at home. In 1983, he published Running in the Family, a highly entertaining and evocative semi-autobiographical account of a journey he made into his family’s past, a palimpsest of Tamil, Dutch and British colonial mayhem. Recalling the reckless years of 1920s Ceylon, Ondaatje describes gun fights over a game of croquet, compulsive horse racing, and epic nights of dancing, drinking, skinny-dipping and chemin de fer, in which anyone could have ‘drowned or fallen in love.’</p>

<p>Ever the fabricator, he was at pains to stress that his exhilarating portrait of his parents and their families – the elopements, unrequited loves and vendettas of the Ondaatjes – was unreliable. 'In Sri Lanka, he writes, in a kind of credo, ‘a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts.’"</p>

<p>[Michael</a> Ondaatje: The divided man | Books | The Observer](<a href=“Michael Ondaatje: The divided man | Michael Ondaatje | The Guardian”>Michael Ondaatje: The divided man | Michael Ondaatje | The Guardian)</p>

<p>Not to belabor the subject of “telling the truth,” but I will admit that have read quite a bit about India because I have some family members with Indian connections, and I once encountered the observation that Indians tend to regard truth as a potent and sometimes dangerous commodity, to be administered cautiously and in small doses!</p>

[buenavista]

<p>Thanks for posting that interview link, SouthJerseyChessMom! I loved that TWO people called in who had been on the ship Oronsay, and shared similar experiences.</p>

<p>And it was interesting to hear Ondaatje talk about reading for the audiobook, because I listened to part of his audio version–it was the middle section where he flash-forwards to his adult life, so it worked very well.</p>

<p>The interviewer commented that “there’s a wonderful line that the Tamil tradition and the Sri Lankan tradition, a well told lie is worth a thousand facts,” to which Ondaatje replies:

And I think there’s an odd kind of humor that I think comes out of that childhood, you know, recognition of how your uncles told lies or told stories, you know. They just exaggerated a bit too much to be fully believable, but they’re possibly true. You know, I think that’s a nice area of between fiction and nonfiction I think.

This ties in nicely with mythmom’s comment that “we can’t assume that Michael’s recollections are true, even if he is being truthful.” Though I agree it doesn’t matter if the recollections are entirely true or not–the “possibly true” ambiguity was part of the beauty of the book for me.</p>

<p>Has anyone read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes? They both deal with childhood friendships and the fluidity of memory–but I liked Cat’s Table better.</p>

<p>I really loved the book. It was not a difficult read, yet his descriptions conveyed a wonderful sense of place. I really felt I was on that ship.</p>

<p>FYI: “That Heir-unapparent to Faulkner” quote on the dust jacket actually comes from an old review of Anil’s Ghost!</p>

<p>Congratulations on the 5 graduations, Mary! We have one graduating high school next week.</p>

[mythmom]

<p>Mary that is really exciting.</p>

<p>buenavista: Congratulations to you too!!!</p>

<p>I am not going to post now, but I would like to say how much I appreciate eveyone’s posts. I am excited by the level of discourse here. You’re all wonderful readers and writers. I feel like I fit right in.</p>

<p>And I did read The Sense of an Ending. (I don’t know how to create the italics, or do the shadow quotes for that matter.) I really liked it, but it’s a far more cynical book.</p>

<p>Sometimes I feel like I bog down in details, which definitely didn’t happen with Barnes’ book.</p>

<p>Oops. I am posting!!!</p>

<p>Back later.</p>

[Mary13]

<p>^ We’re glad you’re here, mythmom!</p>

<p><a href=“I%20don’t%20know%20how%20to%20create%20the%20italics,%20or%20do%20the%20shadow%20quotes%20for%20that%20matter.”>quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>these may help:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1290677-how-quote-posts-tutorial.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/1290677-how-quote-posts-tutorial.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/1162009-bb-code.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/1162009-bb-code.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/misc.php?do=bbcode&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;