Ondaatje and Atwood in the news
First off, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero (currently in stock and ready to ship from Northwest Passages, by the way) since the moment I heard it was coming out. I now have a copy of the Canadian edition in my hands (it doesn’t get released in the US for another month) and just need a bit of free time to get started. I can hardly wait!
There’s been lots of press and reviews in the last few weeks about the new book, and I expect we’ll see a lot more in the US in the coming months. As usual, Aritha Van Herk’s review is as much a pleasure to read as the books she discusses:
A lesser writer might strive to unite these characters, but Ondaatje refuses such obvious resolutions, and instead simply presents the lamellate of their lives. The method of this segmented novel is archeological, revealing itself in fragments and between the lines. The multiple strands of the story are never insistent or chronological; any causal tyranny is stifled. Nor is this a tripartite story, but a slow fanning through the shale of memory and connection, the characters encountering other lovers and lives. “With memory, with the reflection of an echo, a gate opens both ways. We can circle time.”
Collage is the novel’s central metaphor. Anna ventures, “Everything is collage, even genetics. There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross.”
Such poetic measure is one reason why the reader is content to pace these pages slowly. Ondaatje’s imagistic prowess flavours every line. Yet — and here is his true power — the style is modest rather than flamboyant. Wonderfully, its purity means that the narrative explains little, simply shows the characters living through their moments and within their own skins. Although the attentive reader will delight in every sentence, will revel in the vividly original language and narrative approach, Divisadero refuses the aggrandizement of pyrotechnics. By virtue of that reserve, the novel accomplishes an intimacy that is extraordinary, nakedly beautiful.
There’s a nice audio interview with Michael up at the M&S site here.
If I had more time, money, and childcare, I’d be in Montreal this weekend hearing him read as part of the incredible Blue Metropolis writing festival.
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Margaret Atwood has also been in the news a lot of late and some of this attention is due to her upcoming appearance at the Blue Met festival where she will be receiving the festival’s Grand Prix this year.
She’s also been quite outspoken about the lack of support for the arts coming from the current Tory government in Canada, saying that the feds are out to ‘squash the arts.’ I really like that about Ms. Atwood, as she knows that these statements have more of an impact coming from someone of her international stature.
She’s also been talking about Oryx and Crake a bit recently in The Guardian. Like The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s a book that’s seeming all the more prescient every day. There’s a good podcast of her discussion of the book here.