"In the Skin of a Lion" is my overall favorite book that we've read thus far. Tin Flute may have had better characters, Diviners might have been more intimate, Next Episode was rompy and picaresque, and Sunshine Sketches far-and-away, a gem; however, Ondaatje's surreal and wispy style won my praise and adulation.

Odaatje really does play a “game” of sorts with his audience. He, in a somewhat arrogant—yet careful way, only allows the reader to see as much as he wants them to see; perhaps, in finer judgment, what they should be allowed to see. Although, at first, I had some difficulty getting into the timing and illusory, almost brushed over, aspects of the narrative, I adapted and it all became very much second nature. My favorite portions of the book were the dreamy, animated sequences that dotted the novel in flashbacks and foreshadow. One in particular occurs early on, during Patrick’s youth, seeing the Finnish ice-skaters. “There were about ten men skating, part of a game. One chased the others and soon as someone was touched he became the chaser. Each man held in one hand a sheaf of cattails and the tops of these were on fire. This is what lit the ice and had blinked through the trees. They raced, swerved, fell and rolled on the ice to avoid each other but never get go of ther rushes. When they collided sparks fell onto the ice and onto their dark clothes….Patrick was transfixed. Skating the river at night, each of them moving like a wedge into the blackness magically revealing the grey bushes of the shore…a tree branch reached out, its hand frozen on the ice, and one of them skated under it, crouching—cattails held behind him like a flaming rooster tail (21). Just delightful.

Also, although I did mention that Tin Flute had better characters, that doesn’t mean that the characters in In The Skin of a Lion were inadequate for the story. In fact, unlike The Diviners, where every character was…generally unlikable (save for a select few), every character in ITSOAL was incredibly likable and each has their own special facet about them that one can so easily relate to. Nicholas and his rescue, his reaction to Alice and their tenderness at the bar; Caravaggio and his overwhelmingly “Willem Defoe”-nature when he broke his ankle sneaking into Gianetta’s home; even Clara has a memorable moment with Patrick and Alice when they “get” Patrick with paint in such a childlike manner was pleasing to read.

Every book we’ve read thus far has been fantastic, but due to the surrealistic manner of portraying a story, compounded by the “get-lost-in-the-two-hours-of-reading” experience that I had with In The Skin of a Lion, makes it the standout among the five extraordinary novels.

I found Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion to be a mixed bag. Little Seeds, the novel's opening chapter, was one of the most brilliant scenes I had ever read. Since I was 15 I have worked summers on a neighborhood farm with my best friend TJ. Patrick and Hazen's father-son silent, dirt of the earth line of communication reminded me of my experiences watching Bill, the farmer, interact with his father, who we dubbed OT (oldtimer). Overall the scene hit home and I was hooked from the start.

However, as the novel progressed I grew less interested. I was sad to see Patrick's relationship with his father axed in favor of dense pages devoted to the tunnel project. Although intrigued by Patrick's connection with Ambrose, Clara and Alice and Ondaatje's critique on power and race relations in Toronto, I found the text to have too much agency. While many readers enjoy the freedom an author gives by "showing only as much as he is willing to give" I feel it alienates the reader into searching for something aimlessly. There was little or no consistent dialogue throughout the novel. I often felt like Ondaatje was lecturing me and it was tough to grind through.

However, the final 25 pages are brilliant. It begins harmlessly enough when Patrick takes a nap before leaving with Hana to pick up Clara in Marmora. Next, the reader follows a wild terrorist attempt by Patrick and Caravaggio to slay the rich and evil Harris, believing it to be true. However, Ondaatje pulls out the classic "then I woke up and it was all a dream" cliche and the reader is left torn. I admit, I did not expect it but it makes sense now after re-examining the Epic of Gilgamesh and John Berger epigraphs.

I feel that Ondaatje's novel has done the best job of wholly capturing one person's life in the novels we've read thus far. The Diviners explained Morag's life year by year, but her pivotal moments were masked behind self doubt and butchered memories. Here, although Patrick's story is choppy and at times quite abstract, we are allowed a summary of what makes him unique, where he fits into the world, and what shapes him.

Through Hana's recollection of what Patrick tells her in the car, the story turns into a serious of seemingly unrelated fantastic events, that in the end all come together to form the "mural" of which Patrick realizes he is part of. While one might argue that significant moments in life might be the little things, I feel that Ondaatje sums things up perfectly with these big moments: growing up, falling in love, becoming invisible, becoming noticed, falling in love again, committing a crime, attempting to destroy one of the foundations of Toronto, you know, the usual. In these moments we see love, passion, anger, pure insanity, and humbleness. Patrick takes on several new identities as time goes on that ultimately create one bigger, experienced person.

Patrick's eclectic life presents the idea that is stated in the book's epigraph. "Never again will a single story be told as if it were the only one." Berger is saying that there is no one person, one event, one version that tells it all. We are all part of something greater, which is what Patrick discovers and it allows him to open up. Not only are the events in his life linked, but so are the people he encounters. By choosing to write in an unlinear style, Ondaatje allows the reader to make these connections as well, and therefore put Patrick's life together piece by piece.

The Skin of a Lion

I am going to start by disagreeing with Jarvis and state that the Tin Flute is still the best book we have read in this class thus far but this one is not without its glory. The Tin Flute was able to grab me in a way this novel was unable.

It is difficult for me to pick a certain aspect of this book that stuck out the most to me. I was slightly confused at times by the fact that it jumped around a lot in time. Patrick was a character that I found interesting. I loved reading about his relationships with Alice, Hana, and Clara. To make the novel take place over a long period of time Ondaatje focuses solely on the important events in Patrick's life. We saw him as a young boy, than when he met Clara and fell head over heels in love, when he meets Ambrose after looking for Clara, than he disappears for a bit, than he falls in love again with Alice, Alice passes away, Patrick goes to jail, when leaving he attempts to blow up the Toronto structures, and than finally he goes back to Hana and goes to find Clara. All of these are pivotal events in his life that change him. By writing in this way Ondaatje is able to prevent the plot from becoming stale or boring for any amount of pages until the reader waits for another climax. I thought that Patrick was a great man, the way he took on Hana as his child when he knew that she wasn't. There are not many men out there who would take on a responsibility like that.

Even though there were parts that I was forced to reread in order to understand fully, I enjoyed this novel. I have never read something written quite like this and I enjoyed it. To me the first 50 pages and the last 50 pages were the most exciting. By leaving out large gaps in Patrick's life I can only guess as to what happened during those years. I could see how some people would and would not enjoy this, I found myself using my imagination to almost write my own section of Patrick's life and what could have lead him to the next event.

I can’t say that this was my favorite book we have read in this class either. My favorite so far is George and Rue, although I am still in the process of reading it. This novel, In the Skin of a Lion, is often confusing and has a lot of action. I couldn’t really connect with any of the characters, but I thought the most interesting character was Alice. She was such a mysterious character that I wanted to find out more about her throughout the rest of the novel. Her character made me want to keep turning the pages. I really enjoyed how the reader is introduced to her character. Before she names herself Alice and is reborn, she becomes a legend of the bridge. She is the nun who fell off the bridge and was never seen again. I thought it was interesting how after that moment she decided to reinvent herself. I wasn’t really sure that I enjoyed her character as much when the reader sees her as an actress in the illegal puppet production. It was strange how her character starts as under developed and then jumps into a character who has so much influence of the other characters of the book. Her discussion about naming her enemies, seemed to me, to come out of nowhere. Although I understand this is her as Alice, not the nun which she was before, I would’ve liked to understand how she came to these conclusions. Alice was the most interesting character and the most interesting aspect of the novel for me.

"In the Skin of a Lion" is one of the most interesting novels we have read so far. At times, the story was confusing as it jumped around between different characters' lives, however, all of the characters were somehow connected. The beginning half of the novel moved much slower than the end, and, oddly, I enjoyed the beginning more. Though the end was action-packed, many of the scenes seemed less realistic to me. Perhaps Canadian citizens are more forgiving and less fearful of thieves; both Patrick and Caravaggio had great luck with people helping them out of their struggles, regardless of the fact that people knew about their unlawful status.

Patrick and Clara’s developing relationship, near the beginning and middle of the novel, is an example of less active but more appealing scenes. I am fascinated by character design and the ability of an author to bring a character’s emotions, obstacles, and relationships to life. Thus, Patrick and Clara’s strange but very human relationship was intriguing to me. In fact, I found these times of character development to be the most crucial elements of the novel. The latter half of the novel seemed to lose its initial attentiveness to the characters’ though processes, and I lost my connection with many of the characters as a result.

Ondaatje brings the reader on a ruthless adventure through time and different settings. The reader can only digest the facts at hand and put the rest of the puzzle together. It can be frustrating and perplexing at times, but that is what makes a novel so interactive with its audience.

I found In the Skin of a Lion to be my favorite read so far. I felt a strange sensation every time that I read even a passage in this novel, it's like there was something that I was missing out on but at the same time I felt like this is how I should feel. Ondaatje reeled me in with this feeling and I was enthralled until the very end of the book.

The feeling that I got from this novel is probably a result of the frequent jumps in time and the mysterious style of Ondaatje, but even after reading the novel, the feeling reamains. This is a novel that I will definitly be reading again, to try and further identify the reason for my strong feelings.

Patrick's relationships with the female characters in the novel is what grabbed me the most. I felt like Patrick was the character that I could most easily recognize attributes of myself in. Though I can say that my best friends are male, femles have made me who I am. I have been brought out of dark times in my life through the love of a woman and I see this in Patrick's character. Patrick's relationship with Clara is the one that stuck out most to me and reminds me of a relationship that I am currently in. This is mostly due to the fact that this relationship was picked up again from previous time. I find myself continually thinking of this girl, even when we were not together; like Patrick was always thinking of Clara. This book touched my heart and made me further appreciate the relationships that I have.

I also found connection in the scenes involving ice skating, for this was a huge part of my life growing up in New Hampshire. My friends and I were always skting on frozen ponds, even going as far as shoveling the snow off to play some pond hockey. Once again, this is a novel that will be going next to the rest of my favorites on the book shelf.

I definately enjoyed most aspects of this novel, I feel that Ondaatje is a terrific writer when it comes to building strong and very real characters, as least as far as this novel is concerned. Patrick was a character who was very easy to relate to, and to sympathize with in many ways, mainly his relationship with Clara.

I agree with several other classmates in the fact that the way the story jumped around in time complicated the reading, and while some liked the effect it had, I wasn't much of a fan. I felt as though in the first passage I was very much immersed in what was happening on the farm with Patrick, and seeing his world through his eyes with the random jobs he had and the things that he noticed, such as the immigrant workers. Cutting away from this to the bridge, etc., was kind of a shock for me and in a way disconnected me from the story and put me into a mode of trying to figure out where the connection between separate sections was.

I find it interesting what sticks out to someone in a story based on their own personal experiences and what someone will zone in on based on these experiences. I had a similar experience as Ben did when it came to the ice skating scenes. I grew up playing hockey and skating for the better part of my life, and look back on many fond memories involving skating, so I was particularly focused in on these scenes. Overall, I enjoyed Ondaatje's writing as he was able to keep me interested throughout the novel.

“In the Skin of a Lion” has been my least favorite book this semester. I appreciated the beauty of Ondaatje’s writing and frequently paused to read a line aloud to myself. I was also impressed with the author stepping outside of the novel in order for the characters to come alive on their own. However, I felt no connection with these living characters, no concern with the movement of the plot and waited impatiently for the novel to end. Any one section of the novel would have left me as resolved as I was after I had finished.

My favorite part of the novel was the section in which Patrick sleeps while the two major loves of his life, Clara and Alice, paint his portrait. Later, when Patrick examines the portrait, “…Clara tells him, the soul is pliable. He does not believe her. Unless his soul expands during sleep, unless sleep somehow attaches the disparate elements of his character. Perhaps the portrait will teach him. He loves the closeness between the two women and he enjoys their gift of his supposedly gaurdless nature.” (Ondaatje 78) Patrick is most vulnerable with these two women who shape his life. They influence the decisions he did not think himself capable of making. Painting his portrait while he is unaware, the women mold him into the person he becomes.

Furthermore, the reference to sleep linking the isolated parts of his character parallels the reader’s impression of Patrick’s character. I don’t know how much of Patrick I read in the book and how much I imagined or dreamed. I don’t think I’m supposed to. These characters existed before the novel and exist after the novel and Ondaatje has happily relinquished control over them.

While the debate could go on for ages as to what the best book has been thus far in class, this book did have it's high (and low) points for me.

I read it under not the best of circumstances, while traveling back and forth from Toronto. This is a book that necessitates some consistency and concentration while reading it, and when you're reading it on Yonge St., the airport, a plane, a taxi, jumping from place to place the book even more difficult to understand!

But this was a book that I think I got the most out of discussing it in class. To start, you don't particularly understand where everything connects, from Alice and Clara painting Patrick while he's asleep to jumping from logging and dynamite to the bridge... But it was truly interesting to come to the understanding that Ondaatje started with Ambrose Small, but developed the other characters over time. That 'only the best art can create order out of chaos.' And lastly, that the story is being told by Hana as she remembers it being told to her in the car.
Again, reading this book while on the move did very little to establish concrete foundations from which to understand it, and henceforth I was playing 'catch up' much of the time, but it was very cool to have some 'doors opened' in seeing how Ondaatje formed his style, his characters and his story.

I would have to say that this novel was my favorite of the books we have read so far in class. I loved the structure of the novel. The lack of description and how the dialouge was written reminded me throughout the novel of how it would make an excellent film. I have not read the English Patient but I can truely see how Ondaatje's writing style intruiged someone to make an excellent film about it. The lack of description and sometimes vagueness of character made me as the reader develop the characters and some of their actions myself thus creating my own take on the story.
I feel that Ondaatje created this novel with the purpose of the reader imagining the story in many different ways. He starts the novel with the quote from John Berger that "never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one." He created this story based on historical facts and left some of the fictional interpretation open to the reader as though there are many stories to be told from the same historical event. This story will never be told as if it were the only one because there were many stories that came together in order to errect the city that we know as mordern Toronto.
The end of the novel when Patrick swims in the sewers in order to get to the water treatment facility that he helped make possible is one of my favorite parts. To me, it is a dream of Patrick's as he sleeps for a bit longer while waiting to leave to go pick up Clara with Hannah. He imagines this scene because of all of the bent up frustration that he has inside of him that until that seen seemed to not be very apparent to me. This dream was sort of a revelation to Patrick, kind of like he found his inner peace, maybe his inner understanding of himself finally. He has this agression built up inside of him that he is just another brick on the wall of the infastructure of Toronto and no one will ever recognize his hard work and sweat that was poured into the foundation of their city. Yet when he talks to Harris on the verge of blowing up the entire facility, he finds peace. I think that he realizes that he is another brick on the wall, and maybe that is his place where he belongs. Throughout the entire novel he is looking for something inside of himself to explain his point in life and where he belongs and in the end he seems to finally be at peace with everything. This dream is his realization of his lifes purpose , although small, it is still crucial to the movement of mankind. Without people like Patrick, our cities would have never been built and civilization would have never achieved the greatness that exists today. Ondaatje tells the story of the unrecorded men who built Toronto. Since no records were kept of them, he created one, representing all working men at that time.

In the Skin of Lion made me feel disconnected from any kind of traditional plot or narrative. This may be partly attributed to disjointed and jumbled story, but it also has to do with Odnaatje's characters and their relationships with one another. The characters in the book only change and respond when faced with an intimate situation with one another. The isolation of Patrick is overwhelming at times, up until he runs into Alice.
There are two particular scenes or passages that stand out most in my memory. The first is a recounting of Temelcoff's struggle to learn English.

"Nicholas, unfortunately, would later choose Fats Waller as his model and so his emphasis on unusually unnoticed syllables and the throwaway lines made him seem high-strung or dangerously anti-social or too loving."(47)

Besides the hilarious imagery this passage provides it gets at a recurring theme, in the novel, of language use. In the countless scenes of intense conversation between two people I would often find myself lost as to who was saying what. It was at these moments when it seems that the characters are really interacting.

I really enjoyed the variety of Odnaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, which one part love story and one part James Bond movie. One of my favorite parts of the novel was (*as mentioned above) pages 220-35, which told the story of Patrick and Caravaggio's mission to blow up the Palace of Purification. I loved the way that Carvaggio's background story was told separately and then somewhat ambiguously he and Patrick stories became connected.
Though this section did seem out of character with the rest of the book, it was beautifully written and its intricate storyline showed the depth of Ondaatje's brilliance as a writer. Caravaggio's hijacking of a wealthy couple boat and the subsequent plot for Patrick to secretly enter the Water Plant from the river was the most exciting part of the book. Ondaatje's style is poetic, "This is July 7, 1938. A night of no moon, a heat-wave in the city. The lemon-coloured glare from the waterworks, knowing Patrick is underneath him in the five-foot-diameter pipe racing within the current, his movement under water like a clenching fist, doubling up and releasing to full length, then doubling up, awkward because of the weight he carries" (229). By the time Patrick was inside the tunnel, struggling to stay alive and reach the Palace, Ondaajte's imagery had made me feel like I was inside the story.
But it was not just a shallow action plot, the scene represented the greater struggle of the novel, the oppression and disregard of immigrants.The confrontation between Harris and Patrick was interesting to me, because I was expecting it to be this giant blowup after the Patrick's elaborate scheme to get into the building. Yet, Ondaajte surprises the reader and has the confrontation end passively. The author connects the story back to the epic of Gilgamesh (epigraph) when Patrick falls asleep in the midst of his attempt at revolution. Just as Gilgamesh thinks all is lost when he loses the secret to eternal life, Patrick misses his opportunity to "slay the rich and evil Harris" (Josh). But in the end Patrick realizes (as Gilgamesh learned he didnt need eternal life) that a violent climax was not necessary to achieve his ultimate goal.
When we discussed this scene in class I came to a new understanding that it was Patrick's opportunity to use Alice's advice to employ language in order to enact change--not violence. After discussing this, I understood why there was a hectic and violent prelude to Patrick's meeting with Harris. It was meant to set up the scene in which Patrick finally understands Alice's message and is able to honor her memory.
PS: My least favorite part of the novel was the Ondaajte's exploration of the relationship between Clara and Patrick. It was so frustrating!!

Although I never really got 'into' "In the Skin of a Lion", I truly appreciate and respect Ondaatje and his writing. While other novels we have read in class had the power to envelop me, I always felt a few degrees of separation from this one...which, perhaps, was the point.

The book is unique in many ways. The first thing that I noticed was Ondaatje's writing style. It is very succinct, yet some lines are pure poetry. One thing this class has done for me is introduce a new wide array of writing styles and each is wonderful in its own way. Ondaatje's writing has an essence about it that makes you wish there was more; leaving you with the desire to dig deeper beneath the text.

I believe it was mentioned that the author was very interested in film. This is apparent in the way he structures the novel. Like "The English Patient", this book would be very easy to transform to the screen. His lack of detail and abrupt 'cuts' between scenes almost make it seem as though the book is reflecting a pre-existing film.

Like I said, the book never really drew me in because I think that with how it is written and how quickly it moves, it is almost impossible to form any sort of relationship with the characters. That being said, it was enjoyable to read nonetheless. It was like sifting through an action/mystery/magical tale. It was fun to finally see how all of the characters related to one another...truly 'bringing the corners of the story' together.

The thing that really struck me throughout the book though, and gave me great admiration for Ondaatje, was his focus on the workers and the immigrants in Canada. In the 'official' history of many things, we never hear about the sweat, time and troubles that numerous poor workers put into a building or structure. I think that it is important to give these people recognition and appreciation. The same goes for the insight we got in terms of immigrant life. Too often, we only hear about the dominant culture's history and lifestyle, so it was refreshing and interesting to see how immigrant adopted to their new country and life.

In a less broad sense, I would have to agree with Laura in that Patrick and Clara's relationship was both confusing and frustrating. Many of the characters left me with a big question mark over my head until the very end.

Overall, I recognize the greatness of the novel and Ondatjee's writing, but it is not a favorite of mine. That doesn't matter though. I am glad that I read it and would be eager to see the film if one ever comes out.

At the beginning of this novel I did not enjoy it very much. It seemed really jumpy and I could not get into the story. When it came to the section where the nuns where on the bridge and one fell off, I had to put it down. It had finally reached the threshold of what I was willing to put up with. I spoke about this in class and was encouraged to continue reading. I did as I was told and picked the book back up to continue the story. After this point I found myself truly enjoying the story. It began to flow and things began to make more sense. We get to know the characters and their actions begin to fit more with who they are. Language becomes important throughout the novel. Many of the characters have language as a barrier to them. Patrick is only able to connect to other people through his Iguana. He is finally able to talk to others and does not need to remain silent anymore. Language and naming also become important in naming the enemy. Patrick decides to destroy the power of the enemy by blowing up the country club. He takes Alice’s advice literally and tries to go after the center of power. It is this part of the novel that I enjoyed the most. I found that it connected the book for me and helped to make sense of it all. Overall I enjoyed reading In the Skin of a Lion. While my first impression was a negative one, my final impression was extremely positive. I ended up greatly enjoying this novel.

There were a few things in particular that stuck out to me in this story. One thing I noticed throughout the book was that every time something seems confusing, it will be explained later on. I found that the book did jump around a lot, in very similar ways to the Next Episode. However, the Next Episode still left many questions in my head as to the story and what happened afterwards with the characters. In this book, there are many time lapses and also discussions of events that are yet to happen (for example, Alice’s death is talked about far before we learned that it happened or how and why). The best example I have of all this, however, would be learning the true meaning of the epigraph telling us that these are the words of a girl as told to her during a car ride. Obviously, before reading the end we wouldn’t have understood what that meant but it brings a completely different meaning to the book (even giving some explanation for why it jumps around as it does).

I know we spoke about it many times in class, but the presence of language/communication and how it affected each and every character is still what moved me most about this book. Every time I go back and re-read a passage, or think about another character I put together another way that language drove this story. Patrick’s life, in particular, was driven in dozens of ways by his language but also the way he read language too literally many times. With the relationship between his father, and how the only time he mentioned a connection was when they were listening to the square-dancing music, with Clara and everything she couldn’t say to Patrick about her affair with Ambrose (and how he couldn’t tell her how much he loved her), with the store owners when he had to learn their language to communicate what he needed for the iguana, with Alice and how he misinterpreted so much that she said, with the play representing all of the workers who couldn’t speak for themselves, with the laws prohibiting anyone speaking in their native language in public groups, and even the fact that this whole story is a girl remembering a story that she’d been told. There are so many examples I could give of how the communication aspect affected everyone.

I found it beautiful how Hana became the center of everything that happened to each of the characters…in reality, she was truly connected to each one of them in some way. I, also, loved how Patrick took Hana on as his own daughter after the passing of both her parents.

More than anything, though, I loved that Ondaatje took this book on as a way of bringing attention to the lives of all the forgotten workers…all of the people who slaved under ridiculous conditions to bring us so many of the beautiful ‘monuments’ we see today. It reminds us that every building we enter, or road we drive on is there because of the workers that are so rarely recognized for their efforts. Currently, I work for a residential development company and I have found that every time I walk onto the construction site now, I make a note of watching every detail that’s changed since the last time I was in, and realizing the amount of work that each person is putting into it (most days there are around 350 people working to finish the development on time). This book is probably one of the most striking that I’ve read and I’m sure I will keep with me for a long time many of the lessons it taught me.

What struck me most about "Skin of a Lion" was the way Ondaatje was able to connect the technical physicalities of a bridge to the emotional state of the nameless workers. At the beginning the two seemed unrelatable, and I found myself frustrated because of the seemingly missing emotional connection from the book. For example on page 26, he spends a great deal of time telling what the bridge will do, and how it is made, instead of introducing us to the background and state of an individual. But in the end the reader can see the way he was able to put emotion behind the people who accomplished these ambitious and daunting tasks-- like the building of the bridge-- and still remain anonymous. Since these people don't get remembered or written about, it is easy to forget that they have stories and backgrounds at all. Ondaatje stresses this point by writing about these workers in the first place, and reminds us that we need to keep our own ambition and greed in check and not forget about the individual.

In the Skin of a Lion is striking in how it so subtly parallels an intimate view of the characters with themes of great historical magnitude. For example, Temelcoff’s reputation for taking on the most dangerous jobs as well as his pay being twice that of the other workers as a result of his daring and hunger to get ahead, tells us a great deal about Nicholas Temelcoff the individual but also tells the greater story of the opportunity and hardship facing those who came to North America in search of something better and literally and figuratively built the infrastructure of its modern cities, symbols of its industrial triumph.

As an individual, Temelcoff’s story is about a man toiling in some sort of urban primordial ooze, out of which he sees something better to come. Along the same vein, we can also see how Patrick, the son of a farmhand and logger, represents Canadians dealing with a transition from agriculture to industry and the accompanying growth of urban centers. Ironically, Patrick ends up being a dynamiter, like his father was, except he is working on a tunnel for Toronto’s water purification plant and his father was working for a timber company. Thus we see the eternal plight of the worker. As the Palace of Purification is built at such a great expense in all its ornate glory, the ones building it face very difficult conditions and the contrast is powerful. Those who were on the lowest rungs on the socioeconomic ladder, usually immigrants in a strange new land or poor farm workers, had the hardest jobs in building the cities as they, like the city, hoped for something better in the future.

Ondaatje’s ability to seamlessly weave the human story with the story of the growth of a city and a tidal shift in how people live lends a human aspect to the historical story and vice versa, greatly enhancing the impact of both.

"In the Skin of a Lion" is a wonderful book to read not only for its ability to create a spellbinding story of interweaving persons, but also for its historical content, of what life was like back then.

Ondaatje is an amazing author who was able to take history and weave an amazing story of love, betrayl, mystery, and of course history, into a story that makes the reader want to turn the page to find out what happens next. His characters are "real", you feel their pain and joy and their alienation from a group of people.

To pick a "favorite" part of this story is impossible for me. I love every part for its ability to make the story whole. There were however, a few things that stuck out strongly for me that made the book that much more enjoyable. The first is the character of Alice, who would have ever guessed that this amazing woman was actually the nun in the beginning that nicholas saves? I love the fact that Patrick and Nicholas become "connected" through Alice and her daughter. It is amazing that when you start to read this book you get Patricks story and then Nicholas' story and you have no idea what Ondaatje is doing with two totally seperate characters, how they connect or even if they will. So when I learned that Patricks friend Alice is the nun that Nicholas saved, the characters become identifiable and we as readers are able to make sense of where Ondaatje is going with his story. I also love the way that Ondaatje weaves so much history into this story. The bridge workers, the bicyclist riding over the bridge before it is "open" the pits where the men work, all of this happened and with the characters that Ondaatje creates, the hitory comes to life. The use of historical pictures is also great. We create a picture in our mind of what the bridge looked like or what the working conditions were like, but the photos take it to a whole new level of understanding.

All in all I loved this book for its ability to take the seemingly fictional story of Patrick, Nicholas, Alice and all the others, and in its pages create a story of both fiction and non-fiction for a powerful read.

I was really surprised by In The Skin of a Lion. I remember thinking, reading the first chapter, "oh great a book about a boy on a farm, not anything I can relate to", but then I got to the second chapter and the boy and the farm were gone. After that I really enjoyed the book, especially the way that it was written. I know there were a lot of comments in class about the book being confusing because it did a lot of jumping around but I that is what intrigued me most about the book. The way that Ondaatje intertwined all the character and different points was really well done. It made the book a puzzle and when I finished the book I felt like I had accomplished putting together a tough puzzle. I loved that everything in the first few chapters, that seemed insignificant at first, played a much larger role at the end. Re-reading the beginning really helped to connect all the pieces together, especially since the beginning chapters seem to have nothing to do with each other until the end.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, although there were several spots that were hard to follow and required me to read back over to tie the connections together. Like the Next Episode, the second reading of this book will be illuminating in the sheer amount of things i missed. Emily said before me that she was dismayed at first due to the beginning of the book having to do with a boy in a farm as something she couldn't relate to which is the exact opposite of how i felt, having work for a few years as a youth on farms. The book drastically strayed in it's content for most of the rest book but i think the simple and straight forward nature of Patrick's whole personality carried out for the majority. I really liked the blending of fiction and historical fiction, as it worked well to tell the story of the immigrants as a whole while adding personalities and original plots. Also, the beauty of Ondaatje's prose is stunning for the whole text, probably being the most articulate yet pretty language in my opinion of anyone we've read this entire semester. I also liked learning all of the history as the whole background of Toronto and the immigrant population is not something i am very familiar with or even totally aware of. I liked thisnovel a lot and hope to read some more of his work when there is time to do so.

First of all, I agree with Ashley that the beginning and the end were the most exciting parts (she said the first 50 pages and the last 50 pages, which pretty much hits the nail right on the head). I also agree with Julia-- This feels like the English Patient, structurally, and would probably lend itself quite well to that type of screenplay form.

I think one of the most striking things about Ondaatje's writing is his ability to pack such profound ideas into short sentences, as well as whole sections. I liked Emily's comment about his ability to connect the structural engineering of the bridge to the workers-- it brings a big part of the story together for me, because, at first, I thought that section of the story was going to drag. After getting through section 1, though, I went back and re-read the first half of "The Bridge" section and appreciated it a lot more. I was also struck by how much this book seemed to connect with The Diviners. Indeed, the way in which Ondaatje and Laurence chronicle the lives of their protagonists is slightly different stylistically, but I thought that the overall "feel" of the two books was very similar. I don't know how else to qualify that feeling, really. Water plays an important part, thematically, in both texts (especially in Diviners,) as well as in a few of the other books we've read this semester. (Perhaps, after reading The Diviners I was more conscious of this imagery...) In the Skin of a Lion really made me think about Ondaatje's obsession with editing, with the editorial process, like we talked about in class. I wonder what order the sections in this book were first written? For the most part it seems like he could have written them individually, and a few of them could even pass for short stories, I think...(At the beginning of "Remorse:" "Let me now re-emphasize the extreme looseness of the structure of things." Brilliant.) However he arrived at this particular form, it works. The beginning, like I mentioned earlier, is so strong, and I love how we see Patrick's upbringing and the lessons he learned from his father carry over through other parts of his life. In the very beginning, when he sees his father cut the piece of rope, remembering "untie, don't cut..." The section where he is showing off for Clara, blindfolded, "You moved. I told you not to move. You moved." And then, "So much for the human element, he thinks."

This was by far my favorite novel in the class. the reason for this was the characters. I am taking a Zizek and Film class this semester and for some reason, maybe because once you start reading Zizek you start seeing his analysis in everything or that once you start reading him you srtat thinking like him, accent, lisp and all... anyway, as I was reading this I was excited to find characters that were so ripe for Zizekian analysis. The most interesting (and what I ended up writing the final essay about) was the way in which some of the characters don't seem to fit into the symbolic order in the way that most literary characters do.

In my experience, most characters seem to be purely individuals. Sure, they change in some ways, but it's mostly through experiencing traumatic events. In In the Skin of a Lion, though, some of the characters (specifically Patrick and Nicholas Temelcoff) seem to hover between this individuality and something else. The state of their individuality is basically the idea of the Cartesian subject, "I think, therefore I am". This "I" is closed off, unchangable. This is not quite were Patrick and Temelcoff are. They are more malleable, but still retain some of their individuality. For example, in the moment that Patrick discovers the Macedonian word for "iguana" he is embraced by the culture AND he is in a state of being an individual in that he is still a "foreigner" in their community. This is Zizek's subject. Not quite Descartes' "I", and not quite the post-structuralist subject (in which the character would be completely molded by the culture in which they are in). The void between the two is where Patrick is existing. The same is true with Temelcoff in the way that he incorporates himself into the culture in which he lives. In learning English (specifically the way he does it, picking out an actor and mimicking him) he is being changed by the culture, but at the same time, he is closed off from other people becuase he has chosen an actor who often plays strange characters. This causes people to generally avoid him, making him an outcast/individual.

I enjoyed reading In the Skin of a Lion. I think the book had a number of exciting parts starting at the very beginning with Alice, the nun, falling off the bridge. For some reason the first couple times I read it, it seemed unreal to me, I mean I was able to understand that people can fall off bridges, people can fall off of anything, but to me tossed off by the wind? Was it a tornado? Another part that I found fascinating was when Caravaggio had Buck and Patrick paint him with blue paint so that he matched the roof of the prison and would be able to escape, unnoticed. One part that I found rather comical was the way in which Caravaggio was described as being a thief and having a limited sense of the world, "As a thief he had a sense of the world which was limited to what existed twenty feet around him" (189).

At some point I would like to read In the Skin of a Lion again because although I thought I was able to grasp what was going on throughout the book there were a few things that I was unsure about. So I would also agree with what Laura and Julia said about having a difficult time understanding the complex relationship between Patrick and Clara.

I found it quit diffiuclt to piece many parts of this story together, some of the pieces making such little sense that I had to deem them irrelevant rather than trying to find the myserious significance the pieces may, or may not have, had. I've read the novel twice, and am still confused; ultimately restraining me from truly enjoying the novel. My unanswered questions include (but are not limited to), the following:

How does Ambrose Small die?
***How does Alice die (I understand the grabbing the wrong bag thing, but what's the deeper story? and how is Harris involved?
*What is the whole notion of Patrick waking up from a dream? What was the dream??

Someone, please help. It seems as though I am the only one who is completly lost!

Hi

I did not take this class but I am deeply confused! Can someone PLEASE help me understand some details of this novel? I just want to know the basis behind Alice's death!