Hello again world!
Having recently finished up with Persepolis, our ASTU 100 class is now beginning to journey into a new book – Running in the Family by famous Canadian author Michael Ondaatje. This story is an historiographic memoir discussing the backstory of his family and his ultimate return to his native homeland of Sri Lanka. During this memoir, Ondaatje uses the culmination of many different genres to create a mysterious and intriguing expression of his family.
I found this book especially interesting as it compiles and uses many different genres to convey the story. I believe that by using poetry, photography, and dialogues, (that intertwine throughout his memoir) he as the author is creating exactly what he wants the author to interpret. By using these extremely personal additions, he is trying to convey what Sri Lanka means to him. It allows the reader to visualize more deeply the story, and we are swept along as if we are experiencing this journey with him.
This connection to different mediums of storytelling has definitely shifted my view of what a memoir should be. Ondaatje takes this seemingly concrete genre and changes it to better convey his story. Usually when we think of history or a memoir, we interpret it as being factual and completely truthful. However, Ondaatje challenges this by showing us that nothing can in fact be completely concrete. History is always told by a perspective, and different perspectives hold different biases and memories. Two people experiencing the exact same thing can have different interpretations about it, similar to Ondaatje and his brother. His brother argues that Ondaatje’s perspective is completely inaccurate, but how can he argue that when memory is so selective? The popular slogan “History is written by the victors” holds truth as not every side of the story is always told. This is perhaps why Ondaatje’s memoir is so popular, as he challenges the boundaries of the “truth” by proving to us that in fact, everything is prone to subjectivity.
As the story progresses and becomes more focused on his father, I get the sense that Ondaatje is desperately searching for something he may never find. It’s clear that he has a very strong bond with his father, but he was never able to fully grasp their relationship. Being apart from his all these years must of left an image or expectation within his mind. By returning to Sri Lanka, I believe he is trying to piece back together the image of his father and hopes to confirm his beliefs. He is searching for his father everywhere, wether it be by distinctive smells he remembers, or locations holding memories. There is a grave sense of sadness, and as the reader we can understand how much he wants to connect with his father, but he never gets this opportunity as his father is deceased. His reference to the famous Edgar in King Lear affirms our beliefs of his desperate want to have that final connection, but since that is impossible, he uses this memoir to construct his long awaited embrace.
I also can’t help but notice Ondaatje’s internal turmoil between being a foreigner and a local. He feels a connection to Sri Lanka because of the time he spent living there, however he also feels like an outsider due to his colonial background and his international living experiences, “(we) own the country we grow up in, or we are aliens and invaders.” (81) I can closely relate to this experience because of my Turkish heritage but also being born and raised in Canada. I have travelled back to Turkey almost every summer since I was a child, however everyone could immediately tell that I did not periodically live there. Almost off the bat they would ask “where are you from”, even though I speak the native tongue. This sense of the in-between is something that Ondaatje is exploring throughout his memoir. He has this connection to Sri Lanka, but he has never fully identified simply as Sri Lankan. His Canadian background is also a crucial part of who he is, and I believe he doesn’t want to forgo that part of him. This longing to understand and connect with his father is what drives him to return to Sri Lanka after all these years. His father, as well as Sri Lanka, remains a mysterious and ominous part of his cultural identity. In my Sociology 100 class we are currently discussing the term “The Self” and how this is shaped. I believe that this theory can be connected to Ondaatje’s need to confirm his identity and his search to grasp who he is. Many critics have defamed him for not simply discussing or creating an immediate connection to simply Sri Lanka, however I don’t understand how that is possible because Ondaatje is made up of more than simply his Sri Lankan heritage, similar to how I am not just Turkish, but Canadian as well.
With our search as a society to label and categorize things, we sometimes lose who we are. With creating this memoir, Ondaatje is accepting that he is made up of many different elements, similar to how his memoir is made up of many genres, realities and points of views. He is creating a culmination of who he is and ultimately who he wants to be. This isn’t just a story about his memories and experiences, but it also combines the voices and stories of his family and his homeland. By using his controversial combination of genres, Ondaatje is bringing us along to explore and discover his identity, as well as his fathers. In addition, he is perhaps not expressing Sri Lanka in the form many authors or natives would like to see, but he is sharing what he loves and identifies with. Ondaatje captures the essence of identity, underling that it is not clearly identifiable and is not shaped by others, but instead created by ourselves….
“In Sri Lanka a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts.” – Michael Ondaatje
“A good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious” – Jim Bishop
