TORONTO – A new novel from Michael Ondaatje is always a major event in the publishing world. Upon the release of “The Cat’s Table,” which hits stores Saturday, the Booker-winning author agreed to an interview with The Canadian Press on the condition that the discussion be published in a question and answer format.
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CP: “The Cat’s Table” is about an 11-year-old boy named Michael who boards a ship in the 1950s for a three-week journey from Sri Lanka to England. He later becomes a writer. An author’s note explains that it’s a work of fiction, but there is a parallel to a trip you took. Can you tell me about that?
MO: I, as a boy of 11, left Sri Lanka and went to England on a ship, but that was over 50 years ago, so the memory of it is pretty vague, in fact, practically non-existent. So I was curious to find out what happened and so I really had to, in a way, invent a story, invent an adventure. … So the characters he meets … are all fictional characters that I’ve invented for the novel, for the boy, Michael, to meet and be changed by, perhaps.
CP: Some readers are already preoccupied with the labelling “The Cat’s Table.” Some have called it a fictional memoir. How would you describe it?
MO: I really think it is a novel. When “Running in the Family” came out (in 1993), there was a lot of talk … ‘What do we call this book?’ I think that book I would call it a fictional memoir. In many ways that was based on real characters in my family. … This one, even Michael is kind of a fictional character because I have no idea what he was like at the time … it’s almost like an overheard story that I was told about a boy going on a ship alone for 21 days. So that allowed me to kind of fully invent it, really … apart from the fact that he becomes a writer and the name is Michael, which I kind of kept in for almost perverse reasons, everything is invented.
CP: Is this a way of relieving the reader of the burden of worrying about what in a memoir is true?
MO: Yeah. At one point he talks about these “Boys’ Own” adventure (books) we used to read as a kid. It is very much that adventure and tall tale. Half of it is the boy inventing the story and half of it is even as an adult possibly inventing some of the story. I wanted to have that freedom. Childhood is a great freedom and I think I wanted that freedom from telling the truth and from what really happened.
CP: The narrator and his friends have the run of the ship and become fascinated by a prisoner who is aboard – they can’t imagine being contained like he is. The book unfolds very much like an adventure story. How did you approach the writing?
MO: It was actually a real delight. It’s got a seriousness to the book and a sadness to the book but I just wanted it to be that joyous freedom that kids have and adults look back on sometimes with envy or delight. So the way the journey becomes a gift to the boy, you know it’s a dangerous gift but it’s a gift. It was really wonderful to kind of be able to write from the point of view of an 11-year-old for much of the book. It was a simpler style … he doesn’t fully understand what’s going on, but we, as readers, and we, as adults, can see what’s going on long before he does.
CP: The boys sit at ‘the cat’s table,’ as far away from the captain’s table as you can get. How did you become aware of the expression and why did you want the characters sitting there?
MO: I had them sitting at this table and then I talked to someone in Germany who said there’s a phrase called a ‘cat’s table’ which is a table where you sit when you’re not an important player. … I thought: ‘That’s what I want, because that’s how children feel.’ … What was interesting was to have this group of people who are “insignificant” who are, in fact, much more interesting than the officials at the captain’s table.
CP: The novel is also about the nature of memory as the adult narrator tries to piece together the journey, including what happened to the prisoner. That seems to be a topic that fascinates you – why?
MO: Yeah, I think it’s there in the last book ‘Divisadero,’ too … You want to try and happen to understand what happened to you as a child and as a teenager … you know much more as an adult so you begin to understand what you didn’t know as a child and that’s a kind of important aspect of our lives. … You try and work things out later on when you have more knowledge.
CP: I’ve read that you get nervous before publication. Where do the nerves come from?
MO: It’s the first time you’re showing this secret you’ve been making in some kind of crazy room somewhere. You still don’t know if it’s bonkers or what. I mean you can’t really tell until you try it out on people. … It’s nerve-wracking a bit … and then the public thing happens and that’s not a lot of fun.
CP: You don’t do a lot of interviews. Do you find it tough to discuss your work?
MO: I find it tough to discuss when I’m actually writing a book. And it’s often tough to discuss when you’ve just finished a book. I suspect I’m probably better about talking about this book in about 10 years.
CP: I’ll call you back.
MO: Yes (laughing). Will you?
CP: You have a birthday next month (he’ll turn 69). Do you ever see a time when you’ll retire from writing?
MO: Who knows, I may be forced to. (Laughs). I think what happens when you finish a book is you think that’s it. Whatever book. I thought that when I finished ‘The English Patient’ or ‘Anil’s Ghost’ … you feel you’ve kind of completed something and you are pretty wordless at the end of that. I haven’t a clue what I’ll do next. In that sense you feel you’re finished. And then things start hovering around.
CP: It’s surprising to hear that kind of angst from a writer of your stature.
MO: I know, I wish I had that confidence. And I kind of envy those people who can take the weekend off and then begin the next one. Lee Child is banging out novels every year. I’m kind of impressed by this. If only!
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Questions and answers have been edited and condensed.
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