The Cat's Table (Vintage International)

by Michael Ondaatje

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Publication

Vintage (2012), Edition: Reprint, 288 pages

Description

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 makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator's elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself "with a distant eye" for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat's Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy's adult years, it tells a spellbinding story--by turns poignant and electrifying--about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.… (more)

Media reviews

Ondaatje has toned down the elevated consciousness and language that so permeated his last three novels (beginning with The English Patient). Fans will be glad to hear that the richly embroidered imagery of those works is still present, as well as the tantalizing Gothic tones of murder, lush
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sexuality and buried family secrets and curses...His technique, more reminiscent of a poet than a novelist, creates fascinating visual and sensual effects but makes the actual narrative of the voyage feel somewhat inert. This is probably intentional on Ondaatje’s part — he is using the Oronsay more as a point of meditation than momentum — although it does make the cinematic conclusion feel somewhat abrupt. ...The novel also contains a few too many passages of ponderous dialogue....There is much to enjoy, though, in this short, episodic novel, even for readers who may have found Ondaatje’s later works overly dense or poetic..
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The story is constructed in a series of vignettes, stitched together in episodes that move backwards and forwards like the action of a Rubik Cube. One moment we are on board ship and the next on land many years into the future. The narrative both puzzles and unexpectedly pulls us up short....Such
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is the quality of the writing that not until we near the novel's end do we notice a false note in the character of Niemeyer. As the shackled prisoner, so necessary for the plot, he remains two-dimensional, with neither his presence, nor the working-out of his fate, really quite believable. That said, this is a quibble in what is otherwise a beautifully crafted whole.
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I had trouble with the sudden rise to prominence of the characters that dominate the last part of the book. I felt I was being given an invented answer to a fabricated question, rather than an invitation to know who Michael is....Still, this book is wonderful, offering all the best pleasures of
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Ondaatje’s writing: his musical prose, up-tempo; his ear for absurd, almost surreal dialogue that had me laughing out loud in public as I read; his admiration for craftsmanship and specialized language in the sciences and the trades; and his sumptuous evocations of sensual delight.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member mckait
This is a tale of a voyage from Sri Lanka to London on a ship named Oronsay, as seen through the eyes of a young boy traveling alone. The people at the Cats Table, that is, the one the most distant from the important Captain's table, make up much of this story. They and the others on board that
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eleven year old Michael meets along the way. Cassius, Ramadhin, to other boys at the table become his fast friends and the adventures and fascination begin almost immediately. A young lady, or a Spinster, as they say was along for the ride. as was a piano player, past his prime. There was also a tailor and a ship junker as well. A ship junker was a person who helped to dismantle ships when their time at sea was done. Most interesting to me was the botanist, who had an entire garden of useful plants along with him for the trip to his new home. Oh, and Mr Fonseka, teacher met on the voyage who read to the boys and shared stories with them was a small player in the story, but I think a larger one in the story of the lives of these boys.

Then among the wealthy passengers was one Sir Hector de Silva was traveling to England against the advice of doctors treating his hydrophobia. He was afflicted due to the curse of a monk to whom he had shown disrespect. He traveled with two Doctors and a Ayurvedic Healer, as well as his family. His fate was intertwined with that of the boys in an unexpected way.

I loved this book. It was like sitting beside a fire and hearing a story from the past, told by a good and gentle friend. You will meet artists and prisoners and beautiful girls along the way. You will be told of the antics of these boys and you will surely disapprove as I did at times, but you will cheer them on and sigh with relief. You will be brought into the their lives as men and learn their fates, and it will all be done in a most pleasant way.
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LibraryThing member kidzdoc
Michael is a precocious yet naïve 11 year old boy living with relatives in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, in the mid 1950s. His mother, who divorced from her husband years before and moved to England, has sent for her son. He is placed aboard a spacious ocean liner for the three week journey,
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supposedly under the watchful eye of a wealthy friend of the family, but he is essentially left to fend for himself when he is not dining at "the cat's table", so named because it is situated far away from the tables of the captain and the most important passengers.

Michael quickly makes the acquaintance of two other preadolescent boys; Cassius, a troublesome betel-chewing older boy, who was expelled from school but has been selected to attend school in England; and Ramadhin, an introspective and mournful lad. The three unsupervised boys wreak mild to moderate havoc throughout the journey, occasionally accompanied by Michael's alluring and wild teenage cousin Emily, yet they remain just out of reach of harm's way.

The boys encounter and are befriended by a variety of intriguing adult passengers, including an alluring older woman who maintains a stock of birds and wears a coat with pockets for them to be displayed; a musician with two names and even more secrets; and a wealthy man who is dying from a curse placed upon him by a religious man and desperately seeks a cure in Europe. The most mysterious passenger is kept in shackles for a particularly heinous crime, and is only allowed on deck late at night, where the boys observe him with fascination, fear and respect.

The journey marks a transition from the innocence of childhood to the tragedies and disappointments of adulthood for the three boys, although they emerge physically unscathed. The second half of the book describes their intertwined lives, which continue to be influenced by the events of the voyage.

The Cat's Table is a compelling drama, filled with comedy, irreverence and intrigue, with well portrayed characters. Ondaatje does a masterful job in describing the voyage aboard the ocean liner, the mindset of Michael and his young companions, and the sense of ever present menace that held this reader's attention throughout the book. I can't understand why this wasn't selected for this year's Booker Prize longlist, as it compares well with the best of the lot, but it should be a strong contender for this year's Giller Prize.
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LibraryThing member dmsteyn
Who hath desired the Sea? Her excellent loneliness rather
Than forecourts of kings…
- Rudyard Kipling

An excellent, lyrical book, very affecting and interesting. Despite its main conceit of an ocean voyage as life-changing event having been done many times before (e.g. William Golding’s To the
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Ends of the Earth), and done well, Ondaatje manages to keep the book surprising and varied through his excellent delineation of character. The novel is autobiographical in a sense (the main character is named Michael, and Ondaatje made a similar voyage as a child), but only in the same sense that Coetzee’s Scenes from Provincial Life is autobiographical. As Ondaatje puts it, ‘Although the novel sometimes uses the colouring and locations of memoir and autobiography, The Cat’s Table is fictional... down to the narrator.’

Michael makes the 13-day journey from Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) to England, stopping at Aden and Port Said, and passing through the Suez Canal on the way. Although this is the first book by Ondaatje that I have read, I have heard of his beautiful writing before. This is amply demonstrated throughout the book. What impressed me especially was the sympathy with which Ondaatje draws his characters. From Michael’s two friends, brash Cassius and weak-hearted Ramadhin, to the other members of the ship’s ‘cat’s table’ (the dinner table for the poorer passengers), they are all plausible human beings. Ondaatje also provides some intrigue by keeping the reader in the dark about some of the characters, such as a shackled prisoner who is only allowed to walk the deck late at night. The main mystery of the book is worked out interestingly, and despite not being a ‘mystery book’, it kept me guessing for a while. One might criticise Ondaatje for being a tad too explicit in revealing this secret, but as I said, this mystery is only secondary to the book’s meaning.

My favourite aspect of the book was Ondaatje’s depiction of the narrator’s friendship with Cassius and Ramadhin. This is done beautifully with a verisimilitude that is rarely achieved in fiction, which usually depicts the friendships of boys either through rose-tinted spectacles, or as one damn adventure after the other. Although there is an element of escapade to Michael’s friendship, it is mainly posited in order to undermine the traditional depiction of ‘boys’ own adventure’. Ramadhin is shown to be an intelligent, thoughtful boy who, despite his ill-health, still supports his friends. Cassius, despite his belligerence, proves to be a caring if damaged boy. Ondaatje shows how their friendship develops during the days of the voyage, and he also depicts how this relationship continued (and ended) after the voyage. It is a poignant tale of young blood coming to its first boil, realising the hard truths of adolescence and adulthood.

The story can be sad; it can also be funny. My favourite character was Mr Fonseka, a Ceylonese man on his way to teach in England. He is wise and very humane. He is also very widely read; it is he who says the above quotation from Kipling during a burial at sea. His friendship with the boys is, in the end, life-affirming as he helps them deal with their losses and burgeoning self-awareness.

A very good book, worth one’s time and attention. I will be reading more of Ondaatje.
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LibraryThing member lunacat
It's the early 1950's and Michael, an eleven year old Sri Lankan boy boards a ship heading to England, to his mother and to a new life. He, and two other boys of the same age, Cassius and Ramadhin, are seated at the Cat's table for meals, placed furthest away from the Captain's table and well known
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to be the lowliest seating.

As they roam the vast ocean-liner, getting up to mischief as only young boys can, they begin to form relationships with other passengers, particularly those placed at their table, but also those they inadvertently stumble across. In particular for Michael, there is his cousin Emily, two years older and mysterious and distant with it.

The structure of the novel, whilst predominantly focused on the events transpiring on board, drifts at times with the wanderings of memory we all go through, and Michael visits the days of his childhood running wild and barefoot through dusty streets, and snapshots of his life after arriving in England.

There is never too much detail given, each character eking out aspects of their story as seen through innocent eyes, and the various mysteries, beauties and fears that form get heightened as they travel closer and closer to the end of their journey. The writing is beautiful at times, but sometimes the lyricism means sacrificing a connection with the people and their lives. Various scenes are captivating, such as the description of the huge ship creeping its way through the Suez canal, but the links between them can feel a little arduous at times.

In the end the events, both those caused by the boys and those simply witnessed by them, shape the trios lives in different ways. Nothing is quite as it seems, and the confines of a vast ship result in tangled webs linking them all indelibly together, even when they don't want to be. This is a skillful novel with well defined protagonists who have genuine back stories but never show their full hand.
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LibraryThing member vancouverdeb
No need to rush out and purchase The Cat's Table . Whether you choose to read it or not, you will not lose out either way. I am glad that my copy was from the library.

While Ondaatje takes pains to tell us that the book is fictional,it reads like an impressionistic memoir.
Our eleven year old ( and
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sometimes adult) narrator Michael tells the tale of traveling by ship from Colombo Sri Lanka to the UK.The cat's table is where the least privileged sit to eat meals.

The book is not a demanding read,nor does it give much back.The story moves very slowly, there are some interesting characters and small events, but overall The Cat's Table is a somewhat boring read.The supposed climax is a rather large anti-climax. I certainly enjoy many slow paced reads,but I expect there to be something of interest to ponder on from such a novel. This was not the case with The Cat's Table.

Quoting from the book jacket"The Cat's Table is a thrilling, deeply moving novel" , I must admit that I found the book to be neither.

Why is the book on the Giller LongList? Because the author is Michael Ondjaatje. I struggled with whether to give this book 3 or 3.5 stars, but I gave it 3.5 stars because the book was of some interest.
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LibraryThing member JGolomb
"The Cat's Table" by Michael Ondaatje is an intriguing novel. Like fish to bait, I was drawn to Ondaatje's series of innocuous vignettes that fleshed out a plot and bit by bit teased out the characters in bite-sized chunks.

This deeply affecting and multilayered story orbits around three boys
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cruising from Sri Lanka to England in the early 1950s. The primary character, Michael (although we only find out his name 50 or so pages in), is traveling on his own to meet his Mother. He and two other boys, Cassius and Ramidhan, have the run of the ship as the reader is taken on a tour of their mostly (but not exclusively) insignificant trouble making and mischief. In Michael's own words, "...the fact that I was on my own...was itself an adventure. I had no family responsibilities. I could go anywhere, do anything. Each day we had to do at least one thing that was forbidden."

One cannot help but read the coming-of-age theme built around the 11-year old Michael. The theme might seem cliched, but Ondjaatje's deft mastery of language and his manipulation of plot is what distinguishes this as literature rather than mere fiction.

The Cat's Table refers to the assigned table in the dining room of the ship that’s furthest from the Captain. At this table, the boys are joined by a number of other characters, all adults and all outcasts to some extent. Michael's interactions with the adults on the ship, he realizes, are formulating his impression of adults and building his initial views into his own future adult world.

The trip was an opportunity to observe and orbit around an adult world while still playing the part of a child. He says, "We were learning about adults simply by being in their midst. We felt patterns emerging..." And if to underline the cruise's metaphorical transportation from Michaels' childhood into his adulthood, he finds himself in front of a mirror and narrates, "It was the image of my youth that I would hold on to for years--someone startled, half formed, who had not become anyone or anything yet."

We are introduced to a smattering of other characters throughout the story: Michael's cousin Emily, Ramadhin's sister Massi, and the very enigmatic man in chains - a prisoner who's allowed on deck for only a short while each night. It's the well-paced and dramatic unraveling of the prisoner's story that creates one of the signature "Ah-Ha!" moments in the novel. Much of the last third of the book occurs in Michael’s present where Ondaatje focuses on his growth, the transformation of his relationships with those from the ship, and his synthesis of his past and present. And like real life, not all conclusions are neatly packaged.

Throughout the novel, there are hints at where the story is leading. Some of the hints abruptly foreshadow plot lines. Some hints aren't quite recognizable until the initial plot thread becomes knotted with a related thread farther along in the book.

Through most of the interactions on the ship, Ondaatje writes very short chapters creating almost movie-like quick-cuts from scene to scene. I realized that this is how memories work. Usually, one doesn't remember an entire day, but rather moments that have burned into one's memory through the intensity of the experience. I believe that Ondaatje wrote these scenes very purposefully. First, to create very succinct and clear threads that, over time, flesh out Michael's experiences. Second, these flash memories become part of the story itself. They create a pace and expectation on behalf of the reader that propels his experience with the characters.

Michael reflects on the stories of his life, which are in essence, a unification of memories. He narrates, "There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You find in this way the path of your life."
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LibraryThing member sushitori
Captivating story about a Sri Lankan boy who gets shipped off to England to live with his mother. The Cat's Table is the lowest table on the social order of an ocean liner - filled by the most unimportant passengers. Michael and his 2 friends not only have lots on adventures onboard and but they
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also get caught up in the intrigue of the passengers, many of whom aren't who they seem to be. Jumping back and forth in time, the adult Michael describes how the young boys' lives intertwine over the years, wrapping things up for the characters by explaining how their lives turned out. Ondaatje does a good job of by weaving lives together by making his characters interesting and mysterious.
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LibraryThing member lauralkeet
Three 11-year-old boys meet up on a ship from Sri Lanka to England; each will be met by relatives on arrival, but on ship they are pretty much on their own with only the most cursory guardians looking after them. Michael (the narrator), Cassius, and Rhamadhin spend their days exploring the ship,
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with particular attention to areas they are not allowed to be in. At dinner, they are seated at “the cat’s table,” far away from the prestigious Captain’s Table. Their dining companions are single adult travelers, each with their own story (which the boys only partially understand).

Michael relates their three weeks on board, and occasionally the story shifts into the future where we see the characters as adults. This, in turn, informs our interpretation of the sea voyage. There are some touching moments, and some difficult ones too. And of course children are not always the most reliable narrators. But when Michael finally disembarks in England, you know some of what lies ahead for him, both good and bad.

I don’t know how I overlooked this book when it was published, but I loved it, devouring it in just a few days. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member TomKitten
"That was a small lesson I learned on the journey. What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along
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the familiar rut they have made for themselves." p. 75, Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table

On board a ship, the Cat's Table, we are told, is at the opposite end of the social scale from the Captain's table, though such an exalted name would seem to suggest otherwise, at least in this humble feline's opinion. Michael, an eleven year old boy, is assigned a place at the cat's table when he journeys from his native Ceylon to begin school in England, some time in the early 1950's. As the above quote makes clear, he soon realizes that, despite it's lowly status, the Cat's table is where all the really fun people are dine every night with him. He becomes friends with two other boys, roughly his own age, and the three of them vow to do one forbidden thing every day for the entire six weeks it takes to reach England. Innocent pranks often lead to disastrous consequences and, by the end of the novel, we know that Michael's life has been permanently altered by the people he's come to know and by the events that have taken place on board the Oronsay.

I love Michael Ondaatje's writing. I always begin his books knowing I'm in good, trustworthy, experienced hands, though I often have no idea where he'll be taking me. But, to quote Leonard Woolf, it's the journey not the arrival that matters, and never more so than in this superb coming of age story that has the ring of truth filtered through fiction. This will surely lead my best of the year for 2012.
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LibraryThing member Litfan
It's difficult to write this review; in some places this novel is brilliant and in others, plodding. The novel starts out strong as the narrator, a young boy, boards the Oronsay from Ceylon to England. He is traveling alone, and his traveling companions become his dinner mates at the cat's table
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(the table farthest from the Captain's). The narrator is an inquisitive boy, and through his eyes we witness the happenings on the ship-- some everyday and mundane, and others intriguing. There is a prisoner aboard the ship, and this instantly captures the attention of Michael, the narrator, and his two friends. Michael's powers of observation are fairly astute, and the writing is powerful and sharp. The early part of the book reminded me of Life of Pi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and if I were reviewing this first part alone, this would have been a five star review without question.

The ship is a microcosm of society, and Michael's understanding of the divide between classes, and the relationship between children and adults, is cemented on this journey. His learning about the workings of the world in this shipboard snapshot of the larger world are compelling and endearing, and the author deftly captures his changing views as he grows up aboard the ship.

In the later part of the book, however, the tone seems to change-- it becomes darker, and this wasn't the trouble so much as the sudden feeling of being more distant from Michael and the other characters. We move between Michael's present adult life, and his time as a boy on the ship. More characters become involved in the story, but we never really get to know any of them enough to feel a connection. This makes it difficult to stay invested in the story. The mystery surrounding the prisoner does heat up, lending some interest. But unfortunately, the plot toward the end of the book seems to just skim the surface. I had hoped for it to go deeper and was disappointed that it didn't.

It's a worthwhile read by an obviously talented writer, but based on the first part of the book I had hoped for a much stronger finish.
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LibraryThing member Mercury57
nitially The Cat’s Table struck me as a rather bland story populated with a host of rather improbable characters and told in a very episodic manner. As it developed, the book took on the characteristics of a Bildungsroman in which a physical journey to a new life (in this case an ocean voyage)
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acted as an extended metaphor for the passage from childhood to the beginnings of adolescence. And then approximately half way through, it underwent a completely unexpected change of approach and became far more reflective and enigmatic.

At the start of the novel we meet eleven-year-old Michael who is put on a ship in Colombo to travel to England where he is to be re-united with the mother he last saw four years earlier. During the three-week voyage on the cruise ship ‘Oransay’, he makes friends with two boys — Cassius and Ramadhin — who are similarly travelling to new boarding schools in England. Wary of each other at first, the boys find common ground in their insatiable curiosity about the activities of the Oransay and their fellow passengers.

And they do have some extraordinary assortment of travelling companions. Ondatjee populates his novel with amongst others, a Ceylonese circus troupe, a reclusive multi millionaire who lies in his stateroom dying from rabies (the boys believe his illness is the result of a curse); a mysterious woman who is prone to throwing novels overboard and a man who tends a secret garden of medicinal and deadly plants deep in the ship’s bowels. For added interest, they discover a prisoner who is taken onto the decks at night in shackles.

Most of the first half of the book is taken up with the boy’s escapades as they explore, snoop and eavesdrop. ”We were learning about adults simply by being in their midst, ” says Michael the narrator. But misunderstand much of what they see and fail to comprehend some of the signals and it’s left to the adult reader to fill in the gaps.

Around about page 180, this episodic, fragmentary narrative changes direction as the narrator (the adult Michael) leaps forwards many years to relate what happened to the boys once in England. Even then, this is not a linear story as Michael flips from an episode on the boat to a moment in his later life when he was able to understand the significance of that episode more clearly. He reflects also on some of the people he encountered on the ship and how later life revealed what was hidden from him during the voyage. Even then, the novel ends with many questions unanswered. Was the mysterious novel reader, really an undercover intelligence agent? Did the prisoner really escape? What is the nature of the relationship between Michael and his cousin Edith who was also travelling on the boat.? The answers are never revealed. Ondatjee simply suggests and leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions. I’m still puzzling about one of the very last pieces of dialogue in which, having met up with Edith after decades of silence, she tells him. ‘You cannot love me into safety.’

There is no big drama or turning point in this novel. Its impact comes from the lyrical quality of Ondatjee’s writing and the enigma which which he ends. It’s not as redolent with atmosphere or meaning as his Booker Prize winning novel The English Patient but its more quiet style nevertheless makes a lasting impression.
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LibraryThing member Margitte123
Michael was eleven years old that night when, green as he could be about the world , he climbed aboard the first and only ship of his life, the Oronsay, sailing for England from Colombo.

Unbeknownst to him, the twenty-one days at sea would become twenty-one years of schooling, molding him into the
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adult he would one day be, when he joined the cat's table, the least important place to eat on the ship.

The lessons he picked up from the adult company filled up several pages of his old school exercise books. He still had time to make those notes, amid the adventures in which he and his friends, Ramadhin and Cassius, engaged in on the ship. They witnessed an adult world filled with thieves, adulterers, gamblers, teachers, authority, natural healers, dreamers and schemers. Oh yes, and a shackled, dangerous prisoner. Each one of them becomes important in their lives through either their words or conduct. The ship had lots to offer for three young boys to keep them occupied. So many people, so many stories, so many intrigue. And then there was the ports of call...

Miss Perinetta Lasqueti was one of the guests around the Cat's Table who would become one of the biggest influences in their lives. Their first impression of her manner was that of being like faded wallpaper, but the more they found out about her, the more convinced they became that 'she was more like a box of small foxes at a country fair'. She would become one of the biggest surprises on their life's journey.

Mr. Mazappa - the boisterous, loud pianist would change their newly acquired perspective on old paintings with his approach to the angelic Madonnas in them, saying: "‘The trouble with all those Madonnas is that there is a child that needs to be fed and the mothers are putting forth breasts that look like panino-shaped bladders. No wonder the babies look like disgruntled adults."(p.213 - kindle edition)

Mr. Larry Daniels, the botanist, would teach them much more about his plants than they would ever need to know in their lifetimes.

Mr. Fonseka, the teacher, had a "serenity that came with the choice of the life he wanted to live. And this serenity and certainty I have seen only among those who have the armour of books close by."

I wanted to read this book for such a long time now. There was just something about it that told me it would roll me over and tie me down in its prose. It did. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered its popularity on Goodreads. Some books just put themselves where it can be read because it is really that good. It is multifaceted. It is thought-provoking. It is excellent. It is one of those books you cannot walk away from easily. It has all the elements to promise that it will become a classic in time. I want to reread it. I just have to. Period.
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LibraryThing member bookczuk
Kids have access to places that adults don't. They can roam about unbidden, explore, and create new worlds, whether they're in a house, hotel, forest, or ship. That's the situation Michael finds himself in when he is sent by boat from Sri Lanka to England, to join his mother. Much of the book is
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set in this microcosm of reality that was the 21 day voyage. The book takes it's title from the table the children (and some outcast adults) eat at during meals -- the Cat's table, which is just about as far away from the captain's table as possible.

There is mystery and adventure aboard the ship: a hidden garden, a prisoner, a dying man, a scholar, and even some circus performers. Indeed, it was that prisoner, brought shackled to the decks at night for exercise, and the mystery surrounding him, that carried through into the last part of the book, where the children are now adults.

The glimpses of childhood in the 1950's, so different from my own experience in the same time, was fascinating. But I could identify with the freedom children had then, to explore and conquer our neighborhood, be it a ship or 7 blocks in suburbia. That the main character is named Michael, and grows up to be a writer, made me wonder if there was a glimmer of true experience in the book. Either way, the story was beautifully told, keeping the revelation of the prisoner's truth to the very end.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
In 1954, our narrator Michael, is sent alone by ship from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to London where his mother has lived for the last three or four years of his young life. Although he is only 11, he is virtually unsupervised on this voyage, and determined to make the most of it. He is aided and abetted
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by two contemporary companions, Ramadhin and Cassius, the latter of whom he knew slightly at school; the three of them vow not to let a day of the three week passage go by without doing something forbidden. In the dining room, the boys are seated at "the Cat's Table", with several "insignificant" adults who will never be invited to dine with the Captain, unlike the family friend traveling in first class who has promised to "keep an eye on Michael". Despite that assurance, the boys are often left to their own devices, although not completely without adult companionship. Their exploits range from innocuous and mischievous to stupid and life-threatening. Most of the adults they associate with are up to something as well, or at least so it seems to the imaginative boys, who see and hear much that they do not fully understand. To the reader, however, it is clear that not all of the grown-up undertakings are good and legal. As we travel through those 21 days with Michael, we also get glimpses into the future, as he looks back on the adventure years later, interpreting parts of it in light of new information and wider experience. The pacing is gentle (other reviewers call it "slow" or even "plodding"), the writing is fine; there is very little plot, but many little stories. I found it a moving read.
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LibraryThing member janeajones
The narrator (named Michael) of Ondaatje's The Cat's Table tells the tale of his 3 week journey by ship from Sri Lanka to England, when he was eleven, to be reunited with his mother. On the ship he becomes friends with 2 other boys near his age as well as a motley crew of adults who are also seated
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for meals at the "Cat's Table" -- the table farthest away from the Captain's Table in the ship. The 3 boys have the run of the ship and explore all its nooks and crannies as well as the nooks and crannies of their adult acquaintances. The voyage proves to be the defining period in Michael's life -- all his later experiences and memories radiate outward from it. I found the narrator's voice wonderfully authentic and was captured and drawn into his experiences.
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LibraryThing member Katong
Zipped through this. I'm just a complete sucker for Ondaatje's writing on the Ceylon of his past (Running in the Family) and his assured way with tropical imagery (the Cinnamon Peeler). Cat's Table delivered this and more, sailing upon the surface of a deep ocean of memory, friendship and family
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and relationships past. I couldn't help comparing it to Barnes' Sense of an Ending, also a novel of memory and time passed, but which seemed so mechanistic in comparison.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
This was beautifully written and characterized. If I was reluctant to give it five stars, well, I've had a run of special books lately; I read this on the heels of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and in comparison this didn't move or amaze me as much or make me think, "yes, I will reread
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this." On the other hand, it did make me think, "I'd definitely try more of this author." (Although I've read this novel is atypical for the author in several respects--more accessible, less experimental in style.)

It's a fairly short, fast read. It's written as if it was a memoir of Michael, looking back to when he was eleven-years-old traveling alone from his birthplace of Ceylon to his new home in England. The time embraced is longer than that, as we get glimpses of the island home he's leaving, and times since, for the voyage reverberates strongly in his life afterwards. But the focus is on the small "city" or "castle" of the ship S.S. Oronsay during a three-week voyage in 1954 through the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Its spaces and decks are described with enough detail to bring it vividly to mind. In its way it's as impressive a work of world-building as a work of fantasy or science fiction. The cast of characters is vividly presented too--particularly the members of the "Cat's Table." The Cat's Table is the opposite of the Captain's Table. It's as far away as possible from that place of honor, in the most undesirable spot, and peopled with the least socially distinguished of the liner's passengers. But quite a few of those people become important both to the young Michael (not lost on me he shares a name with the author) and to the reader. They're more than they appear at first, several having secrets of their own. There's the other two young boys his own age, Ramadhin and Cassius, the "spinster" Miss Lasquetti, the botanist Larry Daniels with his garden of poisonous plants in the ship's hold, Mr Nevil, who dismantles ships for a living, and the mysterious pianist Mazappa. There are some elements of the plot that stretch credulity more than a bit, but mostly this is a sweet, though not too sweet, tale of childhood, when you believed anything could happen, and thought it had. It was a pleasure to read.
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LibraryThing member Eoin
This small masterpiece proves Ondaatje can do anything. Read carefully, it is a master class in voice, time, and detail; managing to be both contained and expansive, particular and universal. Beside all the beauty and craft, it is several intersecting, self-sufficient plots that would work from any
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voice. Worth it for the movie scene alone.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
I have never read this author before, not his English Patent nor saw the movie, but I loved this book. Micheal is a 11 yr. old traveling alone aboard a ship from Sri Lanka to England. He meets to other boys, also traveling alone, and are seated at the Cat's table, the table farthest away from the
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captains. Their adventure and tragedies as well as the people they meet will affect them all into the future. His prose is wonderful and the novel flows seamlessly from past to present, when Michael is thirty. Wonderful coming of age fiction.
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LibraryThing member pam.furney
A young boy journeys from Colombo to England aboard the Oronsay, absorbing the rag tag collection of people, adventures and events through 11 year old eyes. The story spans this voyage and takes glimpses into his adult life and the person he becomes, shaped occasionally by his experiences on board.
LibraryThing member actonbell
The Cat's Table, by Michael Ondaatje, is a captivating coming of age story about three boys who make the long journey from Columbo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to England on The Oronsay, back in 1954. The protagonist is eleven year old Michael, who befriends two other boys his age, Ramadhin and Cassius.
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They are each traveling without parents, and so at mealtimes, they are seated with a random group of adults who seem like a ragtag group of less fortunate people. It is one of these, an eccentric woman traveling with pigeons, who coins the name of their table and declares it the least privileged spot, being as far away from the captain's table as possible.

During these twenty-one days, these boys get into various kinds of trouble, witness unusual and frightening events, and begin to look outward in more observant, mature ways than they ever have before. Specifically, these boys are awakened to how much lies beneath the surface of seemingly boring, ordinary adults. The denizens of the cat's table, for instance, are most intriguing. These characters are well presented, with a beautifully crafted amount of development twined with enough mystery to challenge the reader's imagination, leaving much to ponder.

As Michael, Ramadhin, and Cassius take the long cruise through the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean, new worlds open up for them, in both positive and negative ways; towards the end of the trip, there is a very disturbing event which remains mysterious.

This story is not told linearly. Instead, Michael moves back and forth between his momentous journey and his present life. Very little is said about his early life in Sri Lanka, or about his very first days in England with a mother he hadn't seen for about three years. I got the feeling that his story became somewhat anti-climatic after this magical time he spent on The Oronsay, that he never experienced anything so intense ever again, and that the rest of his life was all about interpreting what had happened during those days at sea.

As an adult, Michael does receive more enlightenment about what he'd witnessed during his eleventh year, when his mind was growing to include the a larger world, while still clinging to a vestige of magical thought. Of course, these things are not completely illuminated, but then, they never are. Ondaatje chose the right place to let Michael go on without the reader.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Though Michael Ondaatje states that this work is a novel, not based on fact, there are aspects that must be autobiographical, namely the fact that Ondaatje moved from Columbo to England in 1954, when he would have been eleven years old. And he did make such a voyage alone, but states that he barely remembers it, and that the adventures in this story are completely fabricated. Also, like his novel's character, he became a writer.

Anyway, both thumbs up! I enjoyed this one immensely.
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LibraryThing member SalemAthenaeum
In the early 1950's, 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 makes it way
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across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury.
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LibraryThing member vw1
Michael Ondaatje, who won the Booker Prize for "The English Patient," is without doubt one of the world's greatest living writers. His latest novel, "The Cat's Table," is a superb literary experience, equally so both for what it has to say and for the words with which it is said. This should be no
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surprise, since Ondaatje is a poet as well as a novelist. The plot of this book bears some resemblance to its author's life. Like the protagonist of "The Cat's Table," Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka, as a boy he travelled to England for a Western education, and he eventually settled in Canada as a successful writer. In a note to the reader he says: "Although the novel uses the colouring and locations of memoir and autobiography, The Cat's Table is fictional." Is he aware of the aphorism that all autobiography is fictional? Was he aware too of the themes of mythology that pervade this fascinating book? Three boys are on a shipboard voyage that becomes a quest for knowledge and maturity. As in Greek myth, islands play a role: Sri Lanka is an island, and near the book's end, the beautiful and wayward Emily (who at age 17 had given to the 11 year old protagonist his first inkling of sexual desire) is, like a mythic Greek heroine, isolated on an island. To explore further the wealth of insights contained in"The Cat's Table," you must read the book.
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LibraryThing member bookmagic
This is a very charming read, poignant and sweet at times. From the point of view of an 11 year old boy, Michael, the reader is taken on a 21 day journey aboard a ship from Columbo to England in the 1950's, where he is to meet with his mother, whom he has not seen in several years. Michael makes
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friends with two boys his age, also sitting at the 'Cat's Table', the table furthest from the Captain's table, where the least important passengers dine. The boys explore the ship, cause trouble and meet many interesting characters. The chapters are short, each character or event is introduced in one of these chapters then referred to later.
Occasionally the author will refer to future events as they relate to this 21 day voyage.
Ondaajte is an amazing writer and I did not want this book to end. He captured the setting well and kept me interested without any fancy plot devices. This is the first of his work that I have read and I am interested in reading more.
my rating 5/5
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LibraryThing member carolinelafleur
M O writes inside the mind and heart with compassion and poetic fluidity. I always enjoy an author who can paint pictures on the wall of my cranium. M O does this. Confined setting. Short timeline. This brings to mind The English Patient: slow and heavy. Although The Cat's Table is at times funny,
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after all it is told from the p-o-v of an eleven year old boy crossing, aboard an ocean liner, from Sri Lanka to England: Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Red Sean, Suez Canal into the Mediterranean... It is the story of this 21 day crossing, the passengers and the occupants of the cat's table. When the ship lands, few relationships continue: Ramadhin, Emily. It is the story of different worlds colliding, relationships drifting back and forth (p 170)

- imaginary world of the Oronsay (p. 13) free of the reality of the earth (p. 24) e.g. p. 84 with the baron "a little escape into being somebody else), a fairy tale (p. 106) "our castle slipping away slowly ... As the voyage progresses, this imaginary world slowly starts to fade into reality (p 110 + 111.
- the Suez Canal is described a the "most vivid memory of the journey". Was is because of the close proximity to land?
- Michael's nickname is Mynah
- why doesn't Michael leave an address for Cassius at his art showing
- explain Miss Lasqueti
- poetic (p 257)
- explain the ending...

Rating:

Writing: 1 star
Plot/Story: 1/2 star
Kept me reading: 0 star
Character development: 1 star
Visuals: 1 sta
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Awards

LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2011)
Scotiabank Giller Prize (Longlist — 2011)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Shortlist — Fiction — 2012)
Hammett Prize (Nominee — 2011)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2012)

Language

Original language

English
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