Shelf Life: Running In The Family by Michael Ondaatje
Reading this little book while making my way through Singapore/Malaysia gives me the particular feels. Perhaps it is because, Michael Ondaatje’s nostalgia is present in his words, constrained and self-aware, but present nonetheless. Ondaatje’s ability to draw out an image across pages is what made me a fan of his writing to begin with. In fiction, this grounds his narratives in place, and also turns place into a character in his stories. Similarly, with Running in the Family, the sounds, scents, and sights of Sri Lanka pervade Ondaatje’s journey, memory, and also retelling of family history. Place and character bleed into each other, like Lalla, whose life becomes inextricable from the beauty and chaos of Sri Lankan climate (from “The Passions of Lalla“ chapter). Throughout the memoir, Ondaatje allows communal voice to tumble into the pages, overlapping and contradicting: telling narratives that are the same and yet not the same, that are chronologically confused; detailed like cracking paint (the “Dialogues” Chapter). The cacophony of voices points to the memoir’s reconstruction of memory and history, and the …