In the Skin of a Lion
Read In the Skin of a Lion Online
Authors: Michael Ondaatje
Copyright © 1987 Michael Ondaatje
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher, is an infringement of the copyright law.
McClelland and Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ondaatje, Michael, 1943 –
In the skin of a lion
eISBN: 978-1-55199-542-7
I. Title.
PS8529.N3816 1987 C813′.54 C87-093668-9
PR9199.3.05416 1987
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint previously published song lyrics from “Up Jumped You with Love” © C.R. Publishing Company and “I Can’t Get Started” © Chappell Music Company. The lines from
The Epic of Gilgamesh
are from the N.K. Sandars translation (Penguin, 1960). Two sentences on the photographs of Lewis Hine are by Judith Mara Gutman from her essay “Lewis Hine and the American Social Conscience” (1969). Two sentences have been used from the journals of Anne Wilkinson. Lines from Martha Ostenso’s
Wild Geese
are from the 1925 McClelland and Stewart edition.
v3.1
This book is in memory of Michel Lambeth,
Sharon Stevenson, and Bill and Michal Acres
And for Linda, and Sarah Sheard and David Young
I’d like to express my gratitude to The John Simon
Guggenheim Foundation who gave me a grant
during the writing of this book. Also to the Ontario
Arts Council, the El Basha Restaurant, the
Multicultural History Society of Ontario, and
Glendon College, York University
.
I would also like to thank Andrea Kristof, Margo Teasdale
,
George and Ruth Grant, Donya Peroff, Rick Haldenby
,
Paul Thompson, and Lillian Petroff. Also Ian Redforth
for his work on Finnish lumber-camp workers
.
A special thank you to Ellen Seligman
.
This is a work of fiction and certain liberties have
at times been taken with some dates and locales
.
The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when
you have gone to the earth I will let my hair
grow long for your sake, I will wander through
the wilderness in the skin of a lion.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Never again will a single story be told
as though it were the only one.
JOHN BERGER
This is a story a young girl gathers in a car during the early hours of the morning. She listens and asks questions as the vehicle travels through darkness. Outside, the countryside is unbetrayed. The man who is driving could say, “In that field is a castle,” and it would be possible for her to believe him
.
She listens to the man as he picks up and brings together various corners of the story, attempting to carry it all in his arms. And he is tired, sometimes as elliptical as his concentration on the road, at times overexcited – “Do you see?” He turns to her in the faint light of the speedometer
.
Driving the four hours to Marmora under six stars and a moon
.
She stays awake to keep him company
.
LITTLE SEEDS