The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

Michael Ondaatje, who brought us the much acclaimed The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost, has written a wonderful account of a time when ocean travel was still a favored form of transportation.  Seen through a young boy’s eyes, the story captures the magic and wonder found in out of the way places deep in the hold of the ship and the freedom for kids to embark on a grand adventure away from the eyes of their parents. 

The year is 1954 and eleven year old Michael is boarding an ocean liner traveling alone for a three week voyage from Ceylon to England.  On the ship, he meets two other young boys and is assigned to the “cat’s table”, the exact opposite of the prestigious “captain’s table”.  It’s where the staff members and shady characters eat their meals.  It is this assortment of people who Michael spends his voyage with and who mold his future forever.  The trip is spent scouring the nooks and crannies of the ocean liner and observing fellow travelers, including a shackled prisoner as he is walks the decks in chains in the middle of the night. 

The Cat’s Table is a lovely book, beautifully yet simply written, that transports us to the innocence of childhood.  It doesn’t take much to wonder if the story is based on Ondaatje’s own experiences, but an author’s note in the back says no.  I am glad that through a series of flash forward sequences we find out what happened to the colorful characters and the kids who accompany Michael – I think it would have been easy to stop with the ship’s docking and leave the reader hanging.  For these kids, the voyage is the first time that they spend so much time in such close proximity to adults and can observe them at close range. These observations are their own informal education into the world away from school and family and they are changed for the experience.

Today the thought of putting an 11 year old on a ship to travel for three weeks unattended is out of the question.  It plainly wouldn’t happen.  In fact, chances are the parents would be arrested for such an act.  Years ago, this was not looked upon as dangerous but as a necessary way to travel, especially for continental families who were separated by oceans from their boarding school or from relatives who were doing business or visiting far away from their kids.  While I’m not sure I’d put my 11 year old on a ship for three weeks, I grieve for that magical time when a group of kids together have the opportunity to explore and play, problem solve and observe without the intervention of adults.  Yes they got into some bad situations, but they figured out how to get out of them too.  Life lessons that I’m not sure are taught well today.  This important part of becoming an adult is something I have become nostaglic for. 

Ondaatje is a master storyteller who knows all the tricks and I’m happy that this novel has a different feel than his others.  He transports us into the kids’ world aboard the ship and we travel along with them at sea and through the Suez Canal (a particularly beautifully rendered part of the book) and across the Mediterranean to England.  And for the gray days of March, a great voyage indeed.  I hope you’ll take the trip with him too.