Friday, June 29, 2018

Notes from June 2018 group

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje- Discussed on Wed June 6, 2018 at Geneseo Public Library



In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: they are first exposed to the magical worlds of jazz, women, and literature by their eccentric fellow travelers, and together they spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. By turns poignant and electrifying, The Cat’s Table is a spellbinding story about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood, and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.

It seemed our group liked the plot of this story but not the format it was written.  We liked that the story was written from the boy’s point of view but went back and forth in time.  Many in our group thought that the characters were confusing, hard to follow, and the book was difficult to read.  Therefore most people in our group did not like this book.

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