The Cat's Table
by Michael Ondaatje
Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2012, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2012, Dublin Longlist 2013, LA Times Finalist 2011
Date Read: August 31, 2021
The cat’s table is a table on a ship that is the furthest from the captain’s table. This is where Michael, a child of twelve is assigned on a ship crossing from Ceylon to England to meet his mother who he hasn’t seen in four or five years.
Fortunately for him, Michael quickly falls in with two other boys around his same age, Cassius and Ramadhin. They have free reign of the ship and get into all sorts of places they know they shouldn’t be. They encounter adults who they otherwise would never have met and are often lured into their schemes. The relationships that form among the three boys will follow them for the rest of their lives, even if some of their lives are far too brief.
They marvel at a prisoner who is let out of his cell for fresh air most evenings, wondering at his crimes and watching spellbound as he wages a daring escape, most likely ending his own life in the process.
A botanist has brought aboard an entire garden that is stored in the hold and he hosts a tea down in the hold amongst his precious plants. The picture Ondaatje paints of this tea party is forever imprinted in my brain – dark, moist, with greenery and beauty where one would least expect to find it.
Ultimately, however, I am left to ponder the ultimate point of this novel. The boys were exposed to adult situations than they might ordinarily have been but I found it difficult to deeply care for any of these characters. None of them sank beneath my skin and I fear that I won’t remember this novel as much as I would like. Ondaatje is undeniably a talented author, so I must rest my hopes on The English Patient.
Favorite quote: “We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.”
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