Running In The family by Michael Ondaatje

Ondaatje's father was sent from his home in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Cambridge University, to sit for the entrance exams. He became the family hero when he wrote that he had passed. He received three years living expenses along with their blessings. Actually he had failed, but it was 2 1/2 years before Mevyn Ondaatje's parents learned that.

"He had rented extravagant rooms in Cambridge and simply eliminated the academic element of university, making close friends among the students, reading contemporary novels, boating and making a name for himself as someone who knew exactly what was valuable and interesting in the Cambridge circles of the 1920s."

So begins Michael Ondaatje's novel of his family history. Like Billy The Kid, this novel uses poetry, prose and the "reported speech" of others to tell its story, but this one is more stitched together, perhaps because the author himself is more obviously present. Also, he certainly has a more intimate connection with the material. Monsoons, family meals and excursions to old family houses all provide a path into the memories and stories from relatives and family friends. This is a novel/true story about a witty, troubled and eccentric middle-class family from a mixed-heritage tropical culture that doesn't quite exist anymore. I must remember to cross reference it to the section Other People's Lives.

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