In the Skin of a Lion - Ondaatje's Novel

Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka and came to Canada as immigrant, exactly like many of his characters did. Ondaatje’s novel “In the Skin of a Lion” introduces people who were forgotten by official history: thieves, actresses, bridge builders, immigrants and anarchists, lonely voices fighting against the power of money and of oppression. He gave us one kind of story which travels “languorously like messages in a bottle”.

In 1923 the 21 years-old Patrick arrives in Toronto. He looks at the huge arches of Union Station – the heart of the city – which seems a magical portal that will turn the meaning of his life. “He was an immigrant to the city”, even though he was born in Canada. He is entering into the jungle in a skin of a lion; he is willing to fight for his survival. “Now, in the city, he was new even to himself, the past locked away” .

Ambroise Small, the millionaire, disappeared in 1919. He met the radio actress Clara Dickens who became his lover. At that time, Patrick became a searcher, because he was also interested in how to find Abroise Small since his family offered $80,000 as reward for his whereabouts.

Patrick meets Clara Dickens in Paris (Ontario), “the rare lover, the ‘perfect woman’”. She is a woman who has sexual liberty in the beginning of the 20th century. Patrick can’t stand the idea that she loves another man. He was a boy coming from the country while she already was an experienced radio actress and thirsty of freedom.

1930 is the year of the economic depression. Patrick felt ashamed of himself, he was just working in the lake tunnel and nobody knows anything about him. When he was going back home he stopped at a building where people moved in noise. There were a party and a political meeting. And there he will met Alice Gull at the second time. She tells him some political ideas about anarchism and about how to destroy the power of rich people.

Patrick is looking for the meaning of his life in other lives, trying to forget his past or build his future searching the past of other people. He named his enemies and chose his target with resolution: Muskoka hotel, the riches’ paradise.

Definitely, the author of “In Skin of a Lion” is among those who can bring back the order from the chaos and light minds and hearts as if he was reorganizing the several pieces of a puzzle, the strange and magical puzzle of life. It’s a powerful story, plenty of love and compassion. And how said its author “all else is labour and darkness. (…) An unfinished world.”