Review of the novel In The Skin Of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje

   

   I can't begin to explain how beautiful and transcendent this novel is to me. The writing is lyrically evocative while the narrative weaves strands of intimate individual stories together with stunningly reimagined factual events. Walking among the quickly-growing immigrant communities of 1920s Toronto, Patrick Lewis searches for a missing millionaire and, perhaps, his future. While searching, the young man also stumbles upon the thin line between myth and altering history. Those we so often miss in the common recollections of modernity flicker to life all throughout Patrick's journey to decisive action. Those girder and strut builders, the workmen and women of civilization, whose stories are never touched upon, shimmer into focus within the pages of this novel. And the quiet yet clear sensation of a true epic masterpiece unfolding among the scenes and chapters of In The Skin Of A Lion is sincerely swoon-worthy. I have read and re-read nearly all of Michael Ondaatje's works, but this is the one that rises highest among them for me. Certain turns of phrase and specific revelations have the ability to make my hair stand on end in pleasure. Echoes upon echoes of this book will forever live in the folds of my mind.