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Original Essays | May 3, 2012

Lucia Perillo: IMG The Polymorph's Perversity

2 comments By Lucia Perillo

It should not be so hard to write both poetry and fiction. Both arts, after all, make use of the same materials, words and punctuation. Poems... Continue »
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    Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain: Stories

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eBook editions

Running in the Family

by Michael Ondaatje

Running in the Family Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India, " Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.

Review:

"Brightly coloured, sweet and painful, bloody-minded and otherworldly, [Running in the Family] achieves the status of legend." Margaret Atwood

Review:

"Eloquent, oblique, witty, full of light and feeling. Ondaatje's knowledge of the fragility and luck of life is very clear. So, too, is the grace and originality of his prose." The New Yorker

Review:

"With a prose style equal to the voluptuousness of [Ondaatje?s] subject and a sense of humor never too far away, Running in the Family is sheer reading pleasure." Washington Post

Review:

"[T]he brilliant and moving book he has written is original in every way that matters." W. S. Merwin

Review:

"Ondaatje has produced a remarkable book....Shimmering through the haze of heat and memory is an impressionistic, sometimes surreal portrait of an exotic time and place now gone, a colonial paradise that had its own rhythms and imperatives." Globe and Mail
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About the Author

Michael Ondaatje is the author of three previous novels, a memoir and eleven books of poetry. His novel The English Patient won the Booker Prize. Born in Sri Lanka, he moved to Canada in 1962 and now lives in Toronto.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Shoshana, August 9, 2008 (view all comments by Shoshana)
Ondaatje's account of growing up in Ceylon is a memoir with fictionalized inclusions. The style is postmodern and the language frequently lyrical. Ondaatje evokes he tropical swelter and dangers of the landscape in parallel to his frenetic and sometimes interpersonally toxic accounts of his family. Much alcoholic carousing paints a vivid portrait of semi-colonial life in the 1920's and forward. Nicely rendered and a nice model of memoir writing beyond a straightforward, chronological account.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679746690
Author:
Ondaatje, Michael
Publisher:
Vintage Books
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Canada
Subject:
Sri lanka
Subject:
Biography
Subject:
American - General
Subject:
Essays & Travelogues
Subject:
Authors, canadian
Subject:
Sri Lanka Biography.
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
20th century
Subject:
Authors, Canadian -- 20th century.
Subject:
Travel Writing-General
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage International
Series Volume:
. 5252
Publication Date:
19931131
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
208
Dimensions:
8 x 5.21 x .57 in .425 lb
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Related Subjects

Biography » General
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Languages » Foreign Languages » Spanish » Biography » Literary
Travel » Travel Writing » General

Running in the Family New Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$15.00 In Stock
Product details 208 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9780679746690 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Brightly coloured, sweet and painful, bloody-minded and otherworldly, [Running in the Family] achieves the status of legend."
"Review" by , "Eloquent, oblique, witty, full of light and feeling. Ondaatje's knowledge of the fragility and luck of life is very clear. So, too, is the grace and originality of his prose."
"Review" by , "With a prose style equal to the voluptuousness of [Ondaatje?s] subject and a sense of humor never too far away, Running in the Family is sheer reading pleasure."
"Review" by , "[T]he brilliant and moving book he has written is original in every way that matters."
"Review" by , "Ondaatje has produced a remarkable book....Shimmering through the haze of heat and memory is an impressionistic, sometimes surreal portrait of an exotic time and place now gone, a colonial paradise that had its own rhythms and imperatives."
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