Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.8/5)
Genre: Memoir, Travel Literature, Biography, Literary Fiction, Sri Lankan Literature.

Book Review:
Michael Ondaatje's ''Running in the Family'' is a breathtaking and utterly unique work of literature. Part memoir, part travelogue, part family history, this book defies easy categorization. It is a lush, poetic, and deeply evocative journey back to the author's homeland of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and into the tangled, passionate, and often outrageous history of his own family.

Ondaatje, the acclaimed author of The English Patient, turns his gaze inward, tracing his roots to a world of Dutch, Tamil, and Sinhalese ancestry. The book is structured as a series of fragments, snapshots, poems, and glimpses, rather than a linear narrative. He introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters: his beautiful, reckless mother; his charming, alcoholic father; his flamboyant grandmother, Lalla, who seems to live in a world of her own making. We hear stories of love affairs that ''rainbowed over marriages,'' of wild parties, of madness, and of the inevitable decay of a privileged colonial class.

The book is as much about the landscape of Sri Lanka as it is about its people. Ondaatje's prose is drenched in the heat and light of the island, capturing the scent of jungles, the sound of monsoon rains, and the feel of the earth. It is a book filled with a sense of longing and loss, a search for a past that is both magical and elusive.

Praised by writers like Maxine Hong Kingston and Margaret Atwood, ''Running in the Family'' is a classic of contemporary literature. It is a beautiful, luscious, and deeply moving book that spills over into poetry and fiction. It is an unforgettable reading experience, a testament to the power of memory and the enduring pull of home.