Words At Large

In his latest novel, Michael Ondaatje ties two stories together, one set in France early leading up to the First World War, and the other in California much later in the 20th century. Ondaatje spoke with Eleanor Wachtel about his fascination with the past and the award-winning Divisadero (McClelland & Stewart).

Ondaatje is one of Canada’s most celebrated writers, the author of groundbreaking poetry collections such as The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (Vintage Canada) and acclaimed novels like The English Patient (McClelland & Stewart) and In the Skin of a Lion (Vintage Canada). He has won numerous major literary awards at home and abroad, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Booker Prize (before it became the Man Booker Prize) and France’s Prix Médicis.

Last November, Ondaatje was in the winner’s circle once again, nabbing a fifth Governor General’s Award — a distinction that ties him with the late Hugh MacLennan for the most awards given to one author in the venerable prize’s history.

Divisadero is an exquisitely crafted tale of family ties and tensions that combines two intertwined narratives. It begins in the 1970s: teenaged sisters Anna and Claire live on a California farm with their widowed father and a hired hand until a violent act tears the family apart. The other story is that of Lucien Segura, a French author living in southern France just before the First World War.

In this interview, Ondaatje spoke about the characters in this novel, how and why he joined the two stories, and also why connecting with the past is so important in his writing and his own life.

Listen to Eleanor Wachtel in conversation with Michael Ondaatje:

First aired on June 3, 2007 on Writers & Company. [runs 50:30]