{"product_id":"9780228019039","title":"Do You Want to Be Happy and Write?","description":"\u003cp\u003eMichael Ondaatje has achieved international prominence and recognition in a way that few other writers have, let alone Canadian writers. This popularity is most pronounced for works of historical fiction such as \u003cem\u003eThe English Patient\u003c\/em\u003e, winner of the Golden Man Booker Prize, and \u003cem\u003eIn the Skin of a Lion\u003c\/em\u003e, set in 1930s Toronto, shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and winner of the Canada Reads competition in 2002. But Ondaatje has been writing for over fifty years, and his innovative works include some of the most accomplished poetry in the English-speaking world.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTaking its title from a question in his poem “Tin Roof,” \u003cem\u003eDo You Want to Be Happy and Write?\u003c\/em\u003e reassesses Ondaatje’s writing and the role of the poet, from his troubled explorations of the self-reflexive artist to his most recent novels. Comprehensive in both approach and coverage, this new collection offers groundbreaking analysis informed by an understanding of Ondaatje’s entire oeuvre, placing early poetry collections like \u003cem\u003eThe Collected Works of Billy the Kid\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThere’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do\u003c\/em\u003e alongside the full range of his novels and his extensive work as a literary editor. The book highlights the transnational, postcolonial, and diasporic issues that have become increasingly apparent in Ondaatje’s work. Contributors explore key interests that have reappeared and been rethought across his fiction and poetry: the construction of identity; the nature of memory and its relation to family origins and history; the human body as a site of contestation and struggle; the contrast between Eastern and Western values and the Southeast Asian diaspora; the writer’s responsibility in depictions of war, psychic trauma, and genocide; and an ongoing fascination with the visual and the media of photography and film.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn eclectic celebration of an iconic author, \u003cem\u003eDo You Want to Be Happy and Write?\u003c\/em\u003e offers an authoritative reference point for scholars and students of literature and reveals new facets of a major author to his readers around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"River Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"McGill-Queen's University Press |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  2023-09-01","offer_id":44227481993471,"sku":"9780228019039","price":39.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_eac32385-3ba6-43f1-9ab0-87b0625bd7d0.jpg?v=1692920017","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780228019039","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}