Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
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Book Reviews of Divisadero
Book Review: Compelling
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought that the story surrounding the two sisters was intimate and sentimental. Overall a thoughtful and compelling book. Would recommend to any reader.Book Review: What is divided?
Summary: 5 Stars
A finely honed novel of epic proportions. It feels unfinished the way life does.Book Review: Murky Parallels, Marvellous Prose
Summary: 4 Stars
Divisadero consists of two separate stories connected by the slenderest of threads. The first story, told in the first half of the book, is about two sisters, Anna and Claire, raised by a widowed farmer in Northern California. Their father has also taken in Coop, the orphaned son of some neighbors. When the girls are sixteen and Coop nineteen, an event occurs that shatters the family into separate pieces. We follow Coop and Claire into their adult lives, where their stories simply peter out.
Anna becomes a scholar, and journeys to rural France to research the life of an obscure writer, Lucien Segura. There she meets Rafael, a gypsy who when he was a little boy knew Segura as an old man. Anna then fades into the background as the story reels backward, into Segura's youth, his experience during World War I, his period of fame and his flight from fame. The book ends with Segura's death, a beautifully wrought meditation on what part of a self is always with us, and what part is made by the ties we form with the outside world.
Why did the author put these two largely unrelated stories together in one novel? He gives us allusive symbols to discover and ponder - blue tables turn up in both stories, glass shards, damaged eyes. We get some tantalizing hints by examining the character's lives: that each life contains a storyline whose meaning we are constantly puzzling out or surprised by; that competence in our craft is our main defense against chaos; that a need to shape and inhabit our own narrative cuts across time and culture. The act of puzzling out what Ondaatje is getting at resonates with our own efforts to puzzle out the paradox of existing complete within our selves but incomplete without others.
All of the main characters are men and women of few words, so it is Ondaatje's authorial voice that creates the "vivid and continuous dream" necessary for captivating fiction. The style is rich, resonant and filled with marvelously observed details of the French and California countrysides. Even if this novel doesn't resolve its plot or yield up its meaning in the conventional way, the skill that went into its creation make the reading of it always engaging and often exhilarating.
Book Review: Beautiful Prose, Satisfying Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Divisadero contains two stories with some connection. They are set in very different times and have very different tones.
The first is set in the late 20th century and involves 3 main characters who are raised as siblings though none are technically related. It spans a mostly peaceful life in California followed by a jaunt into the world of high stakes poker. There is love, violence and pain. It is a very compelling story that doesn't really reach final resolution. Several reviewers mention the lack of resolution as an issue but I did not find myself needing more explanation.
Through the research of one of the main characters in the first story, we move to the second tale set mostly in the early 20th century and spanning World War I. It is the story of writer Lucien Segura and his struggles with family, war and love. It is very different than the first and moves much more slowly but is nonetheless a satisfying read. I did not find that it lagged.
I enjoyed the contrast in tone, content and setting between the two stories though some may find the stories disconnected from one another.
Linking everything is Ondaatje's lyrical prose. It really is a wonderfully written novel.
In all, I enjoyed it very much. It was shortlisted for Canada's top fiction prize the Giller Award in 2007. It is a far superior work to that year's Giller winner, Late Nights On Air. I can only assume that the panel thought that Ondaatje receives enough accolades for his work including a previous Giller for Anil's Ghost and the Booker for The English Patient.
Book Review: Lush Mosaic of lyrical love and lament....
Summary: 4 Stars
DIVISDERO grabs the reader from the very beginning and the multi-layered, page turning plot reveals that the connections in time, both present and past, continually circle our lives to mold and shape us. We are ever haunted by these flowing and ebbing moments.
Reading Ondaatje's rich prose is like sitting down to a gourmand's feast and slowly working through the pleasurable, excellently prepared courses. It's as if a `courtesan of words' is seducing and dazzling you with unpredictable, intriguing stories. Ondaajte's descriptions are nakedly beautiful scenes of majestic texture and captivating imagery.
His poetic skills are woven into the narration with a subtle, yet radiant passion.
The novel at first appears to fashion fragments of lives as the story unfolds by flowing both forward and backward in time.
In time we realize the fluid connection, the critical moments that define and `circle' the unforgettable characters and create the dreamlike images and hear the elegant prose of his language.
The two distinct parts of the novel were difficult to align and didn't become fully realized until the very end.
Anna likens it to a villanelle...."this inclination of going back to events in our past, the way the villanelle's form refuses to move forward in linear development.."
Still, there were, for me, a few loose ends in the final pages that I would have enjoyed to have been tied up before closing this powerful, evocative tapestry...
Highly recommended!