Michael Ondaatje – Running in the Family 2 x PRO-TAPES (audiobook) SEALED
Running in the Family is a fictionalized memoir, written in post-modern style involving aspects of magic realism, by Michael Ondaatje. It deals with his return to his native island of Sri Lanka, also called Ceylon, in the late 1970s.
It also deals with his family. Much of the focus falls on his
father Mervyn Ondaatje and his scandalous drunken antics. Michael's
grandmother Lalla is another family member that is explored in detail.
Many themes are explored in the lives of his family, particularly
luxurious frivolity (especially in the 1920s) and dipsomania.
The book often seems to blur the lines of fiction and history by
offering diverse accounts of certain incidents and retellings of
isolated events about which the author couldn't logically know so many
intimate details. It is ultimately about a man's quest to reconcile
himself with the father he scarcely knew and come to terms with the loss
of not knowing that man. This narrative which locates the writer and
his journey towards a father, who is no longer alive, but constantly
present in the narrative, is also a story of individual identity and its
intersections with a larger identity of a minority community in the
country.
Some important themes include: memory (its reliability,
importance, and what makes it valuable), assumptions about others, the
importance of family, and societal expectations. Another significant
extension of the theme of memory is the blurred line between memory and
history. History becomes anecdote, the past that is remembered:
recollected and recounted, a negotiation with memory and its
unreliability. This book also contains many motifs including maps,
nature and money. Motifs also include the sensorial dynamics of memory:
sounds, smells and colours.
See also
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