Running in the family 17-60

After reading this memoir it has to be one of the better of the memoirs, but it is still really confusing. In the book Ondaatje jumps around a lot from one subject to other, but I think he does this because he wants to show that his life is like his writings, all over the place, from one thing to the next. Ondaatje seems to be very informed about his families past history, his type of writing is informative yet still seems like a story rather than an informative memoir. He does a great job at describing the scene instead of just telling you. I have learned more about his family than I have of Ondaatje, but I think he does that on purpose, he wants you to get a good feel of where he came from and the people that surround him, hopefully we will get more stories about things that have happen to him later on in other chapters, chapters that are really short.

Much of the focus falls on his father Mervyn Ondaatje and his scandalous drunken antics. "During that time he could do nothing but drink. Humorous and gentle when sober, he changed utterly and would do anything to get alcohol. He couldn't eat, had to have a bottle on him at all times." (58) Here it shows that Ondaatje didn't really have a close friend relationship with his father, kind of that like Lott had with his father. Each member of his family hold a theme in Ondaatjes life.

So far this book is a mix of history of actual events of things that have happened in the world and stories about his family that contains a lot of detail about his family, he seems to tie all of this together really well. Ondaatje describes his family as very rich for that time, with things such as horses that raced, and a family that thrives on alcohol. "The only occupation that could hope to avert one from drink and romance was gambling. [...] If it was not horses it was crows. A crippled aunt, who could not get to the track m began the fashion of betting on which crow would leave the wall first." (48) Not only is his family real heaving into alcohol but they are into gambling, if its not one bad addictive habit it is another. I think that this will play a big role and will be mentioned a lot throughout the memoir.