I recently went to see Michael Ondaatje at a reading in the city.  I’ve read two of his books—The English Patient and Coming Through Slaughter. After an introduction in which the presenter explained that 3 instructors all wanted the professor to visit their class at the same time, he read selections from his novel, Anil’s Ghost, “Last Ink” from Handwriting: Poems, and  a selection from The Cat’s Table, his latest novel.  (I have a lot of reading to do.  I need to read more of his work.)  Afterwards, he answered questions from the audience.

Ondaatje works in 2 genres: poetry and fiction.  He has also written a memoir. When asked by an audience member how does he decide what genre to write in, he explained that at one time, he used to be able to write poetry and fiction at the same time but now, he only works with one genre at a time. He also told us about his experience as a writer-in-residence at Columbia Medical School, which is fascinating.  I didn’t know the medical school had a writer-in-residence program.

He revealed is that his books usually take him 4-5 years to complete.  He also writes everything by hand!  The first draft is the draft in which he discovers the story.  After about 4 years, he gives the manuscript to 3-4 very close friends to look over.

Someone asked him a question about the use of painting in some of his works.  He mentioned that he wanted to include drawings in The Cat’s Table.  There was a huge gasp from the audience when he said that he is at the point with The Cat’s Table where he is just now remembering everything that he wanted to put in!

At the end of it all, I walked away with an autographed copy of Coming Through Slaughter as my copy of The English Patient is almost 2,000 miles away.  Still, it was great to see such an admired writer read and discuss his work.