Running in the family

In this fictionalized memoir, Michael Ondaatje returns to his birthplace of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, to reconstruct the history of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. He focuses specifically on his father, Mervyn, a man defined by chronic alcoholism and erratic public behavior. Through a sequence of anecdotes, poems, and family legends, the narrative documents the lifestyle of the colonial elite during the 1920s and 1930s. The text details tea estates, passenger trains, and the heavy humidity of the island while attempting to reconcile fractured memories with the messy reality of his parents' marriage and eventual divorce.

This book serves readers interested in post-colonial history and the mechanics of ancestral memory. It appeals to those who study how oral traditions and private records shape a person’s sense of identity. The reader finishes the text with an understanding of how geographic displacement affects a family's lineage. They gain a specific look at the social structures of the Burgher community in mid-century Sri Lanka and the specific difficulty of capturing the truth of a deceased relative's character.