The Cat's Table (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Michael/Mynah: The narrator of the story.
• Cassius: A friend of Michael's on the Oronsay. A black sheep figure. Has some similarities to Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
• Ramadhin: A friend of Michael's on the Oronsay. He is asthmatic, so cannot do some of the wild things that Cassius and Michael do.
• Larry Daniels: Botanist from Kandy who sits at the Cat's Table and has a 'garden' in the hold of the Oronsay.
• Emily de Saram: Michael's cousin.
• Massoumeh Ramadhin: Add a description of this character.
• Max Mazappa: An adult that sits with the boys at the Cat's Table, he is also performs on board as 'Sunny Meadows - Master of the Piano'.
• Sir Hector De Silva: A philanthropist on board the Oronsay. A Moratuwa entrepreneur, he is suffering from a fatal illness and is sailing to Europe to find a doctor to cure him.
• Mr Perera: Policeman incognito during the cruise who was hired to watch the prisoner in the brig.
• Mr Nevil: A retired ship dismantler who has been working in the East, but is now returning on the Oronsay to England.
• Mr Fonseka: going to England to become a teacherstayed in cabin all day
• Mr Giggs
• Miss Lasqueti: One of the nine people allocated to Table 76.
• Flavia Prins: Flavia's husband is a friend of Michael's uncle. She has been appointed to look out for him on the journey aboard the Oronsay.
• Asuntha: A deaf girl
• Sew Gunesekera
• Sidney Bechet: Le Grand Bechet, whose nickname is Bash, a Parisian performer and idol of Mazappa's.
• Mr Hastie: Michael's roommate who is in charge of the kennels on board the Oronsay.
• Heather Cave
• Mr Invernio: Hastie's assistant in the kennels on the Oronsay and part of the bridge group.
• Horace
• Niemeyer: A prisoner on board the Oronsay and Asuntha's father.
• Perinetta Lasqueti
• Mr. Wijebahu: Emily's boss at Ceylon Telephone.
• Father Barnabus: Junior school master at St. Thomas' school in Mount Lavinia which Michael and Cassius attended. Nicknamed 'Bamboo Stick' Barnabus because of what he used to punish the students.
• Mr Tolroy: Wireless operator aboard the Oronsay and part of Mr Hastie's bridge group.
• Mr Babstock: Wireless operator aboard the Oronsay and part of Mr Hastie's bridge group.
• Goola: Bechet's dog.
• Seneka: Michael's friend.
• Socrates Gunewardena: Michael's family's paediatrician.
• Baron C.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “"It is an impossible language, English. Impossible! 'Egypt' for instance. That's a problem. I'll show you how to spell it right every time. Just repeat the phrase 'Ever Grasping Your Precious Tits' to yourself."”

  Mr.Mazappa

• “Sometimes, just before darkness, I found myself on C Deck when no one else was there. I'd walk to the railing, which was the height of my chest, and watch the sea rush alongside the ship. At times it appeared to rise almost to my level, as if wishing to pluck me away. I would not move, in spite of this havoc of fear and aloneness in me. It was the same emotion I had when lost in the narrow streets of the Pettah market, or adapting to new, undiscovered rules at school. When I could not see the ocean, the fear was not there, but now the sea rose in the half-dark, surrounding the ship, and coiled itself around me. No matter how scared I was, I remained there, adjacent to the passing darkness, half wanting to pull myself back, half desiring to leap towards it.”

• “I would visit that smoky room if the day was dull, and he would at some point begin reading to me. It was the anonymity of the stories and the poems that went deepest into me. And the curl of a rhyme was something new. I had not thought to believe he was actually quoting something written with care, in some far country, centuries earlier. He had lived in Colombo all his life, and his manner and accent were a product of the island, but at the same time he had this wide-ranging knowledge of books. He'd sing a song from the Azores or recite lines from an Irish play.”

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• What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves.

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• But he had a serenity that came with the choice of the life he wanted to live. And this serenity and certainty I have seen only among those who have the armour of books close by.

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• THERE IS A STORY, ALWAYS AHEAD OF YOU. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You find in this way the path of your life.

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• So we came to understand that small and important thing, that our lives could be large with interesting strangers who would pass us without any personal involvement.

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• SOME EVENTS TAKE A LIFETIME to reveal their damage and influence.

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• In the great centres of power, you see, competition is based not so much on winning but on stopping your enemy from achieving what he or she really wants.

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• It would always be strangers like them, at the various Cat’s Tables of my life, who would alter me.

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• I am someone who has a cold heart. If I am beside a great grief I throw barriers up so the loss cannot go too deep or too far. There is a wall instantly in place, and it will not fall. Proust has this line: “We think we no longer love our dead, but … suddenly we catch sight again of an old glove and burst into tears.”

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• Who realizes how contented feral children are? The grasp of the family fell away as soon as I was out the door.

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• As well, our desires were fed by an earlier time, from that very early morning in our youth when she seemed painted by those shifting green branches. We all have an old knot in the heart we wish to loosen and untie.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• England
• Colombo
• Pacipia
• Aden
• Port Said
• London
• Europe
• Cat
• Mill Hill
• Ceylon
• Gunepala
• Hyderabad Mind
• Whitehall
• Kandy
• Tilbury
• Suez Canal

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Michael Ondaatje (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Giller Prize (Finalist, 2011, Shortlist)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary