Michael Ondaatje's Relationship with his Father in his Work, Running in the Family The jacket description embossed on the back cover of the Vintage publication of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family gives the reader a false sense of what the book is about. To some it is a "lyrical and witty" tale of "broken engagements, and drunken suicide attempts," and to some it may be "an inspired marriage of travel narrative and family memoir" (jacket). The front cover, however, provides the most valuable information about the book. It is a detail from Paul Gauguin painting of a man walking through a tamed arboreal area. A scene from a tropical countryside the colors are bright and vibrant; off to the left side is a small hut. Gaugiun was a post-Impressionistic painter who stressed feeling over realism; it was the sole intent of the artist to catch the emotion of the moment. Thus, emotion appears to be the driving force of Running in the Family. The book is a series of anecdotes and "gesture[s]" as Ondaatje labels his construction of plot (206).
hael Ondaatje's Relationship with his Father in his Work, Running in