{"id":1450,"date":"2007-11-07T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2007-11-07T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/divisadero-of-intersecting-liv.html"},"modified":"2007-11-07T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2007-11-07T13:00:11","slug":"divisadero-of-intersecting-liv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/divisadero-of-intersecting-liv.html","title":{"rendered":"Divisadero \u2013 Of Intersecting Lives, Divides and Links"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGotraskhalana, is a term in Sanskrit poetics for calling a loved one by a wrong name, and means literally, \u2018stumbling on the name.\u2019 It\u2019s a familiar occurrence in the Restoration-like fables of marital life and love affairs collected by the scholar Wendy Doniger. What these verbal accidents do is aim a flashlight into the brain, reveal its vast museum of facts and desires.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"divisadero.jpg\"Writer Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient<\/em>) is not compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Faulkner for nothing. He has been called a thinker, an explorer and a seeker of truth. What sets him apart for me is his fabulous use of language and ability to concoct intricate plots yet narrate them simply and effortlessly like a beautifully woven tapestry, these are his strengths.
\nWhile some accuse Ondaatje\u2019s work of being too poetic, that\u2019s what brings music and melody to his newest work, Divisadero<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n


\nLike jazz music, the narrative in Divisadero <\/em>traverses back and forth in time and place. Each character finds some foothold in a present born of their entrenched past. Anna, the protagonist, narrates this story, which is set in 1970\u2019s Northern California. A father and his teenage daughters Anna and Claire work their farm with the help of Coop, a local boy. But early in the story, this simple life is torn apart and sets fire to the rest of their lives. The latter half of the novel explores Coop\u2019s subsequent life as a poker player, Claire\u2019s attempt to rebuild her life as a public defender\u2019s legal researcher and Anna\u2019s pursuit of an academic career at Berkeley.
\nIn parallel, Anna\u2019s interest in French literature takes her to the French countryside and to the home of the late author Lucien Segura. As she delves into research and slowly reconstructs Segura\u2019s life, she finds that Segura\u2019s life is connected–episode-by-episode and image-by-image to the story of her own family. Love, loss and reminiscence play soulful melodies through this lyrical narrative, laying upon it the Ondaatje brand.
\nDivisadero <\/em>is a word that Ondaatje says he fell in love with many, many years ago. A word that has two meanings at least, – it is a street in San Francisco from the Spanish word for \u201cdivide,\u201d but it also means \u201cgaze from afar\u201d in Spanish. \u201cI just loved that name: it had first of all, more vowels than my own name, which is rare! And it was the sound \u2013 a great word,\u201d says Ondaatje.
\n— Written by Visi Tilak, an award winning writer who lives in Ashland, MA.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGotraskhalana, is a term in Sanskrit poetics for calling a loved one by a wrong name, and means literally, \u2018stumbling on the name.\u2019 It\u2019s a familiar occurrence in the Restoration-like fables of marital life and love affairs collected by the scholar Wendy Doniger. What these verbal accidents do is aim a flashlight into the brain,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nDivisadero \u2013 Of Intersecting Lives, Divides and Links<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/11\/divisadero-of-intersecting-liv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Divisadero \u2013 Of Intersecting Lives, Divides and Links\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGotraskhalana, is a term in Sanskrit poetics for calling a loved one by a wrong name, and means literally, \u2018stumbling on the name.\u2019 It\u2019s a familiar occurrence in the Restoration-like fables of marital life and love affairs collected by the scholar Wendy Doniger. 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