Pages 3-22 Summary

"The Cat's Table" by Michael Ondaatje is the story of a passenger ship journey from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to England in 1954. The adventures of several children on board, told through the eyes of one boy, are interspersed with tales of what happened to them later in life. The novel opens with the eleven year-old protagonist, as yet unnamed, sitting in the back of a car going through the city of Colombo in Ceylon. Two adults are whispering in the front seat, but he pays little attention to them. When the car reaches the harbor, the boy boards a ship called the Oronsay. He finds his cabin and sleeps, not even waving goodbye to whomever brought him. He awakens to a disturbance, caused by the drunken tugboat captain. The ship is towed to sea, and the passengers cheer. In a section...