There are a handful of authors whose writing I enjoy so much, I would be tempted to read their shopping list: Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, Sebastian Barry, Michael Chabon and, of course, Michael Ondaatje. It was with great anticipation, then pleasure, that I picked up the galley of Ondaatje’s latest work, The Cat’s Table.

Very surprisingly, the first half of this novel can be described as charming. Not an adjective I would normally ascribe to a work by Ondaatje, but one I stand by. The story begins with 11-year-old Michael boarding the vessel Oransay in Ceylon for a three-week journey to join his mother in London. Traveling alone, Michael is placed at the so-called Cat’s Table, the dining table furthest from the prestigious Captain’s Table. His diverse assortment of tablemates may be considered low class, but they provide for a lot of interesting side stories throughout the book. These characters also show a great deal of tolerance and caring for Michael and the two other boys also seated at the table, Cassius and Ramadhan who manage to consistently get into as much trouble as three unaccompanied pre-teen boys should get into on a great ship.

The novel seems to initially be a “charming” coming-of-age story but with each passing chapter, an unexpected tension begins to build primarily centered on the shackled prisoner also being transported. And along the way, almost vignettes play out around the ship with Michael at their center.
A brilliant novel that I believe is also Ondaatje’s most accessible. ~Patti