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Novel writing for Ondaatje works almost like painting. He uses only a few small strokes at a time; little fragments that eventually form into a complete work over a period of a several years. Most of his novels start with a single image, and the rest works itself out from there.
Philip Michael Ondaatje CC FRSL (/ ɒnˈdɑːtʃiː /; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan -born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. [1] Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing The Dainty Monsters, and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.[2]
The necessity of improvising, of inventing something from the bedrock of an incident, of painting a whole literary canvas that draws from all the sources at our disposal, means it is not surprising that a work of art will criss-cross the border between fact and fiction, or truth and a half-remembered memoir.
Ondaatje is known for work that dissolves the lines between prose and poetry, past and present, image and intellect, thought and feeling. “Moving in and out of imagined landscape, portrait and documentary, anecdote or legend, Ondaatje writes for the eye and the ear simultaneously,” noted Diane Wakoski in Contemporary Poets.
Mar 6, 2024 · Ondaatje’s work is characterized by its lyrical prose, innovative narrative techniques, and thematic exploration of cultural identity and displacement. Ondaatje first gained critical acclaim...
Nov 21, 2023 · Why did Ondaatje choose jazz among numerous art forms? Originating from an encounter between European and African traditions, jazz broke through ethnic and national boundaries, becoming a globally recognized music genre after an evolution of more than a hundred years.
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Michael Ondaatje's work combines the factual and the imaginary, poetry and prose. His longer narrative works, often based on the unorthodox lives of real people, may contain documentary as well as fictional elements.
