Divisadero
by Michael Ondaatje
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Book Reviews of Divisadero
Book Review: "Everything is collage"
Summary: 5 Stars
Michael Ondaatje writes in his new novel, "[T]here is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross." At one level "Divisadero" is such a collage, spreading scenarios across more than one hundred years and several continents. Initially seemingly disconnected events and individual stories are nevertheless intertwined in some way. They converge around Anna, the anchor in the narrative who brings the different segments together. At another level, Ondaatje's exquisitely written novel is about recurring themes of identity, love, loss and pain, and the potentially healing power of passing time and remembrance. Completely absorbing, I found it deeply moving and enriching. A book to be read more than once to be fully appreciated in composition and content.
A certain mystique surrounds the title; its varied possible interpretations find their echo in the structure of the novel and the personal histories of the protagonists. According to Anna "divisadero" means "to divide" and also "to gaze at from afar". A pivotal experience at some point in each protagonist's life has broken its continuity, resulting in a major change or split in their life from then on. Some inner consolidation may be achieved as time allows for re-examination of the past and discovering of similarities in others. Ondaatje uses different voices and perspectives to bring to the reader more than one linear narrative. The novel's structure also reminded me of a musical composition: across the distinct 'movements' themes are nonetheless recurring, and innocuous motifs, such as the shards of glass, can take on symbolic character in their repetition; parallels in the protagonists' lives are slowly revealed and linkages established. With each reiteration, new aspects of the story are introduced for the reader to explore.
The actual plot can be summarized very quickly. It is evidently not Ondaatje's primary motivation for writing "Divisadero". His interest clearly lies in exploring the essence of his characters, their feelings and sensuality, their interaction with others and their physical environments and finally, their ability to recover (or not) from deep trauma. A widower raises his daughter, Anna, and adopts an orphan girl, Claire, born on the same day, as a pseudo twin sister for her. Coop, son of a local farm hand, also an orphan, is added to the small family. When the girls are sixteen, a devastating event abruptly ends the until then mostly idyllic life in rural northern California. They break apart, each coping in a different way with what they experienced. "The raw truth of an incident never ends" Anna reflects later on. Claire's and Coop's stories are interleafed with Anna's. Coop's character, in particular, is expertly drawn, as he lives out the challenges of his youth.
We meet "Anna" again, living in Southern France, as a biographer, researching the life of Lucien Seguro, a little known author who lived there nearly a century ago. She has since shed her name and former identity. Her life becomes indirectly linked to the writer she studies, in part through Rafael, who was connected to Lucien in a similar vein that Coop was connected to Anna's family. While the narrative switches to Seguro's life, his coming of age and the people surrounding him, we are led to make connections, see parallels. Ondaatje's sensitive exploration of the growing fondness between Lucien and his young neighbour, Marie-Neige, is one of the most touching and haunting love stories one can imagine. Comparisons are invited between Anna's life and Lucien's. At every stage, though, Ondaatje leaves us guessing who the narrator is. Is everything written by Anna? Nietzsche's "We have art, so that we shall not be destroyed by the truth", is initially introduced by Anna on page one of the novel, and later repeated. While we are receiving signals that Anna's recollections may not be necessarily the only version of the truth, Ondaatje leaves the question open to interpretation. In a wider sense, encompassing the whole novel, there are hints of an "invented life" - to make it less painful and to come to terms with her abandonment of her sister and Coop in a time of crisis. The beginning is in the end completing the collage created. [Friederike Knabe]
Book Review: Murky Parallels, Marvellous Prose
Summary: 4 Stars
Divisadero consists of two separate stories connected by the slenderest of threads. The first story, told in the first half of the book, is about two sisters, Anna and Claire, raised by a widowed farmer in Northern California. Their father has also taken in Coop, the orphaned son of some neighbors. When the girls are sixteen and Coop nineteen, an event occurs that shatters the family into separate pieces. We follow Coop and Claire into their adult lives, where their stories simply peter out.
Anna becomes a scholar, and journeys to rural France to research the life of an obscure writer, Lucien Segura. There she meets Rafael, a gypsy who when he was a little boy knew Segura as an old man. Anna then fades into the background as the story reels backward, into Segura's youth, his experience during World War I, his period of fame and his flight from fame. The book ends with Segura's death, a beautifully wrought meditation on what part of a self is always with us, and what part is made by the ties we form with the outside world.
Why did the author put these two largely unrelated stories together in one novel? He gives us allusive symbols to discover and ponder - blue tables turn up in both stories, glass shards, damaged eyes. We get some tantalizing hints by examining the character's lives: that each life contains a storyline whose meaning we are constantly puzzling out or surprised by; that competence in our craft is our main defense against chaos; that a need to shape and inhabit our own narrative cuts across time and culture. The act of puzzling out what Ondaatje is getting at resonates with our own efforts to puzzle out the paradox of existing complete within our selves but incomplete without others.
All of the main characters are men and women of few words, so it is Ondaatje's authorial voice that creates the "vivid and continuous dream" necessary for captivating fiction. The style is rich, resonant and filled with marvelously observed details of the French and California countrysides. Even if this novel doesn't resolve its plot or yield up its meaning in the conventional way, the skill that went into its creation make the reading of it always engaging and often exhilarating.
Book Review: Divisadero Disappoints
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading this book, I can only assume that Divisadero translates into "disappointment" in some language.
I've only recently discovered Ondaatje's books, and I read his three most recent efforts back to back. The English Patient was stunning; a good plot, wonderful characters, and writing so lush and poetic that I nearly felt drunk after finishing each passage. I then read Anil's Ghost, which was more blunt, straight-forward and serious, but it also had good characters and the writing was solid, although less poetic.
Divisadero started out well; the story of two sisters and their young male friend had the earthy, rustic drama and violence of a Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor work. But just when the plot began to get interesting, the characters shot off in totally different directions and the book became more of a rambling, hippyish Jack Keroack-style novel. And then this plot suddenly ended and the rest of the book was the story of a French writer from the past. It was as if Ondaatje had two totally different ideas but couldn't make a full novel out of either one, so he stuck them together like some ill-fitting literary Frankenstein. Once we get to know and care about the characters from the first half, they are never mentioned again until the end of the book, in a sly, "Who knows what ever became of these people?" type of way.
After reading the first two books, I realized that Ondaatje doesn't like to write in a linear style, and that's fine. The problem with this book is that the two story lines didn't intertwine, neither one was fleshed out enough to stand on its own, and the writing in this book fell far short of Ondaatje's normal level. There were one or two flashes of the brilliance he showed in The English Patient, but that was it. Most fans of Ondaatje's work are sure to be disappointed by this book, and if you've never read this author and would like to give him a try, go for one of his earlier books. You'll be glad you did.
Book Review: Disappointing read from Ondaatje
Summary: 2 Stars
Michael Ondaatje's Divisardo is the first novel I have read, or rather tried to read, by this critically-acclaimed author of The English Patient. I'm sorry to report that I was disappointed with this latest Ondaatje effort. So much so in fact that I didn't even finish it-which is a rarity for me. Once I get halfway through a book, I feel obligated somehow to finish it. Not so here. I got to page 191 (total page count is 273) and couldn't not go any farther. I thought maybe it was because I was eager to read Jay Asher's debut novel, Thirteen Reasons Why. I came back to Divisardo after completing Thirteen, but it was too late; I was too bored with the undefined plot line to read the rest.
Divisardo is, supposedly, about three children who are raised together, Claire, Coop, and Anna. Anna and Coop had an affair, and he turned into a professional gambler. That's as much as the non-linear structure as I could figure out. Well, Anna is studying French writer Lucien Segura. Other reviewers have mentioned the parallel of Anna and Claire with Segura's daughters, but I didn't even see a reference to them in the pages I read.
One of the biggest issues I had with the text was voice. All the characters sounded the same, and all were flat. Whether the scene was violent or sanguine, it became increasingly difficult to determine who was talking when because of the sameness in tone and voice. This is the one time that a varied sentence structure could have worked wonders for a piece.
The San Francisco Chronicle called Divisardo "Brilliant...plays whimsically with chronology and memory, with fantasy and historical fact." Author Jhumpa Lahiri called the work "a mosiac of profound dignity, with an elegiac quietude that only the greatest of writers can achieve." Me? I just went "huh?"
Armchair Interviews says: Heed this reviewer's comments.
Book Review: Beautiful Prose, Satisfying Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Divisadero contains two stories with some connection. They are set in very different times and have very different tones.
The first is set in the late 20th century and involves 3 main characters who are raised as siblings though none are technically related. It spans a mostly peaceful life in California followed by a jaunt into the world of high stakes poker. There is love, violence and pain. It is a very compelling story that doesn't really reach final resolution. Several reviewers mention the lack of resolution as an issue but I did not find myself needing more explanation.
Through the research of one of the main characters in the first story, we move to the second tale set mostly in the early 20th century and spanning World War I. It is the story of writer Lucien Segura and his struggles with family, war and love. It is very different than the first and moves much more slowly but is nonetheless a satisfying read. I did not find that it lagged.
I enjoyed the contrast in tone, content and setting between the two stories though some may find the stories disconnected from one another.
Linking everything is Ondaatje's lyrical prose. It really is a wonderfully written novel.
In all, I enjoyed it very much. It was shortlisted for Canada's top fiction prize the Giller Award in 2007. It is a far superior work to that year's Giller winner, Late Nights On Air. I can only assume that the panel thought that Ondaatje receives enough accolades for his work including a previous Giller for Anil's Ghost and the Booker for The English Patient.