Review of Ondaatje's The Cat's Table

Ondaatje's 11 year old narrator Mynah wins readers over from the start. Mynah, or Michael, leaves his home in Sri Lanka on a transatlantic crossing to London where he joins his mother after four or five years of separation. It's a three week journey, but more than a voyage it becomes a micro-universe of strangers who in Mynah's words "alter" him forever. Banding with two other boys his age, Mynah weaves his memories of their times together and the other vivid characters who populate their shared "cat's table" with his present--or at least his adult--life. Michael's voice never errs towards the sentimental sappiness, but endears us to him by keeping his cards close to his vest with his callow, yet wise honesty. The novel hits on the truth of how when a short time span is amplified it takes on greater meaning in the future and how we are indeed forever altered by those strangers.