The Cat's Table

The Cat’s Table is an adventurous story where an eleven year old boy, Michael, embarks on a solo journey from Ceylon to England to meet his mother. Along his trip, Michael encounters many individuals who contribute to the experience he had on the boat. This story is a great coming of age, thrilling biography.

I enjoyed this book once I got past the beginning. It was a slow start for me as there are a lot of things to keep track of right from the beginning. I am not quite sure I understand who each character is even after finishing the book. However, the story was fun to read and put together in my imagination as Michael, Cassius and Ramadhin explored the chaos of the Oronsay.

The strongest lesson I believe this book gives off is the understanding of how people are connected through experience and tragedy. I think Ondaatje did a good job of showing the impact one person can have on another. It is an important lesson on friendship as many people fall out of contact with those they once felt like they shared a “universe” with and can look upon their time together negatively. This lesson can eliminate that sense of negativity.

One specific part of the book does not stand out to me, however I enjoyed the parts where he is on the boat the most. As many people have not had an experience like that one, it was fun to get to vicariously live through Michael’s adventure. Although the book is not an autobiography, there are a lot of correlations between Michael in the story and the author, Michael. Michael Ondaatje did take a journey from Sri Lanka to England, and there was a boat called the Oronsay, but he claims that the story and characters are fictional. I enjoyed that there can be at least some thought that a real person endured something similar to this thrilling story.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but as previously mentioned, I had a hard time getting into the story. Most books start off slow(ish) so I don’t think this was a weakness of the author. I found there to be too many people that were not easy to remember right at the beginning. It made the story a little difficult to follow and therefore, my drive to read it wasn’t high until I had more of an understanding. I had to reread the first bit a few times to get the background necessary to understand the details, and even then I don’t feel that I confidently know all of the characters.

I liked this book as it is unlike most of the stories I read. Michael’s growth was an interesting aspect to the story and really pulled it all together. This is a short read with a surprising twist in it, I would recommend it to anyone that is looking for a book for a rainy day.