Running in the Family #1

Upon first starting Running in the Family, by Michael Ondaatje, I was entirely fascinated. I find far away places and foreign environments to be extremely exhilarating. I was very confused with the jumping around and the multitude of names to learn and locations but I think that it is appropriate for the amount of stories being told. I just have a hard time following. It seems as if this memoir is more about stories of family members and their adventures than of Ondaatje's personal life and emotions in his relationships. This may change and he might just be giving family background in these sections before he really dives into relating it to his own life.

I personally enjoyed the part of the book titled "The Courtship" and the stories of his father's wild antics in England. "It was two and a half years later, after several modest letters about his successful academic career, that his parents discovered he had not even passed the entrance exam and was living off their money in England." (31) I enjoy this part of the book because "parents" usually come off as proper, and reserved people and sometimes its hard to imagine them in their youth. I am also curious to know how Michael Ondaatje found out all this detail about the lives of his ancestors. He was not alive to witness his father's wild youth or his grandmother's and grandfather's young lives. I am curious to know if he found out all this information through stories, or letters, or imagination. Possibly a mixture of the three.

I am curious to witness the evolution of the story and how it will come back to the memoirist's life. I think Ondaatje is very passionate about his family to include so many intriguing stories about them. I feel that his life is still a mystery and I am interested to see when he with shed some light on himself.