In the skin of a lion- preview

In the skin of a lion, by Michael Ondaatje, is a mixture between reality and fiction story. Fiction as it comes from the author’s imagination. Real as it introduces real-historical facts about Toronto in the ‘20s and ‘30s, as it introduces real places and actions, as it introduces real jobs and personalities, as it introduces real suffer and communication facts, and as it introduces real feeling and expressions.

This novel is a combination between love and mystery fiction. Love that places its seeker on the edge of the mad. Mystery that makes the reader playing his role to solve it. It is a kind of non-ended story, which leaves several question marks in the reader’s mind. It is wealthy with metaphors and analogies, so the meaning stays behind the words. The wide imagination of the author creates your wonder as you dazing while wandering around the magic of words, as you live in a real dream.

Reading this novel is like a wonderful trip for professional and reading seekers. But it is a big challenge for a second language learner-like me- who will struggle between the words looking for the real meaning. I feel that I need more time and a second chance to be able to collect all corners of this novel as will as to understand the real meaning of its title “in the skin of a lion”. That is why I recommend this novel for the reading seekers who have enough time to understand the playing with words.

In the skin of a line carries between its folds some messages: The immigrant suffering and their battles to be survived in their new home, the lives of immigrants who built the city then became ignorable after a while, the power of love as it changes its “victim” behavior and life, the lover can’t be forgotten even with her hardness and careless, this life-with all of its wide areas- is so narrow as the person can meet his seeker without any appointment, the political and wealth powerful, how much our surrounded- mates affect our lives, and how much our love for some persons are affected with their performances.

This novel reflects the author’s background, as an adult, immigrant person who doesn’t have any chance to see his dead father. The facts that he has a lot of non-solved question about his father’s personality and life gives some reasons about non-ended and non-cleared mystery in this novel.