Running in the Family (1982)

Sri Lanka

Ondaatje's account of growing up in Ceylon is a memoir with fictionalized inclusions. The style is postmodern and the language frequently lyrical. Ondaatje evokes he tropical swelter and dangers of the landscape in parallel to his frenetic and sometimes interpersonally toxic accounts of his family. Much alcoholic carousing paints a vivid portrait of semi-colonial life in the 1920's and forward. Nicely rendered and a nice model of memoir writing beyond a straightforward, chronological account. ( )

Blurring the lines between memoir and fiction, Ondaatje's book recounts his experiences visiting Sri Lanka as he explores his family history in what was then known as Ceylon. With rich and lyrical descriptions of the country and his family, the book is beautiful to read. Ondaatje manages to capture the disjointed nature of oral narratives that often accompany explorations of family history. Filled with beautiful imaginings of events involving various family members, actually recountings from family and friends, and more reflective passages on his experiences and individuals he calls family. There are also a few photos included at the beginning of each section that serves to remind the reader that as much as the book pushes the boundary of fiction, these are still real individuals and events. Even the few poetry sections are beautiful, reflecting a country that is both Ondaatje's home and yet exotic at the same time. Evocative and a rich exploration of the many different stories that make up any family history, Ondaatje captures the fuzzy boundary of history and story. ( )

In the middle of a cold winter, I am reading about tropical monsoon showers in a country where nobody has to wear socks. Evocative poetic language. The sadness of a family haunted by alcoholism and a society, a class, a livestyle that is doomed and all know it. ( )

If you like the prose style of Michael Ondaatje then you will love this book. A series of vignettes about his and his families life in Ceylon. Ondaatje himself says that a well told tale is worth a thousand facts and some of the tales he tells about three generations of his family have probably grown taller by the retelling. The sketches of family life are at times nostalgic, then crazy and also sad as the stories of characters and a society now very much changed flit across theses pages; Interspersed with beautiful descriptions of the island particularly in the Monsoon notebook sections and some evocative poetry. A charming little book ( )

Oh, the fantasy twenties, the bravenewworld twenties, the isla formosa twenties. Just in case the seething exploitativeness and class privilege of it all wasn't up in your face enough in Gatsby, in Brideshead, Ondaatje slaps you in the face with it. This is a literal colony, and the drunkest idiot son is gonna pay for all those tripping gin walks down cinnamon-scented paths by being, like, a major in the Coldwater Guards and safely protecting Ceylon from the Japanese. Ondaatje makes no apologies for being a scion of privilege, and he gets away with it, because this world is that intoxicating. Because more than we want to condemn this world of laughter and mystery and affairs and the great chain of family ties and light-hearted laughter and cold-blooded savoir faire in the face of the fact that all that stops you from being a human stain is that you're beautiful--more than we want to condemn it, we want to experience it. We want to be the ones who lived fast and made this tiny land our own. We want to fly, tonight, and it's a lot more honest to make that flight a flood, like Ondaatje does for his batty grandma Lalla, and to have it end in crushing brutal death and not be the less wonderful for that than it is to cover up and make it Peter and Wendy and "there'll always be an England." There won't and there wasn't, and the same goes for planter Sri Lanka, but the difference is the bright young Ceylonese things knew it, and it redeems them a little and makes them a lot more doomed and desirable. A fantasy world; one that evaporates in peacock cries and dew. ( )