I must be alone among my friends and acquaintances in not liking either the book or the film of The English Patient, but I could still appreciate Michael Ondaatje's sparkling and unusual prose and was keen to read The Cat's Table. I was hooked by the sample I read in the `Look inside' feature, which I thought was mesmerising, but began to wonder as I read on whether I was going to enjoy the rest of the book as much.
Although the author stresses that it is a work of fiction, it is also a semi-autobiographical account of the voyage from Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was called in the '50s) to London. The narrator, Michael is an eleven-year-old boy who teams up with two other boys travelling alone, going to meet his mother, whom he has not seen for several years, in London. He worries that they will not recognise one another, and wonders how she will know when the ship will arrive. Along with other low status passengers, the boys dine at the cat's table, the lowliest table on the ship, as far from the Captain's table as it is possible to be. But this is where they meet some interesting and unusual fellow travellers.
The journey, and the inevitable mischief from three unaccompanied boys on a ship for three weeks, is related in retrospect, looking back years later and interwoven with events and emotions that enlighten Michael's adult life. Individual scenes are often short and jump from past to present, which might make the story feel disjointed to some. I found it stimulating but wondered whether some of the characters and events sounded a little unlikely. The book was rarely so engrossing that I didn't want to put it down, but it was always a pleasure to take up again.
The vignette describing the ship's passage through the Suez Canal, when the boys stayed up all night, is exceptionally well written - so real and bursting with colour that you could almost be there on the deck, experiencing the sights and bustle just as the boys experienced it.
I enjoyed it, but I can see that it's a book that won't appeal to everybody. Those who like a fast-moving story, or one with a strong story line, probably won't enjoy it, but for readers content with a gentler pace, interested in feelings, and appreciative of a distinctive writing style, it's an appealing read.
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