Despite the poetic language, this was quite a quick read. I will re read it again though as the language is complex and there are things that still do not make totally sense in my head. This is will not be a chore as the language is beautiful and eminently evocative. I wish the plot and characters' motivation had not been so difficult to fathom at times, lost is some land of magical realism. Great book still.

By the author of The English Patient. This is an extremely well written story of early 20th century Toronto and about the immigrants who built the massive public works projects. It is also a story about anarchists and their relationship to the wealthy class.
I would have given it 5 stars, but the ending was a bit muddled. Still a great read.

Tässä tarinassa suomalaiset siirtolaiset kiitävät luistimilla Kanadan metsäjärvien jäällä soihdut käsissään. Tässä tarinassa suomalaiset lokarit kansoittavat ammattiliitot, kun heidän ei enää tarvinnut nöyristellä esivaltaa tai pappeja.

Tässä tarinassa eivät silti ole pääosassa suomi-ihmiset vaan maaseudulta Torontoon saapuva Patrick Lewis. Tosin ammattiyhdysläisiä Patrickin elämässä riittää. Näistä tärkein on rakastettu ja sen lisäksi on gangsterin heila. Tarinasta paljon kertoo se, että mies on kahteen naiseen sidoksissa.

Leijonan puvussa on samanlaista maagista realismia aikuisille kuin Mark Helprinin Talvinen tarina. Ihmeellisen ihanaa kieltä, taianomaisia kohtauksia ja lähes sankarillisia päähenkilöitä. Sekä tylsää pintaa, joka ei missään kohti kolahda.

Tässä kirjoittamisen lajissa vaikkapa Alice Hoffman on intensiivinen ja vaikuttava. Sen sijaan Leijonan puvussa ei oikein ole vakavasti otettava. Se oli niitä kirjoja, joiden tarina saattaa jäädä mieleen, mutta ei sydämeen.

What I enjoyed most was the portrayal of the migrant communities, especially in Book 2. I can't say that I was particularly attached to the main cast of characters, but I did enjoy the narrative and descriptive detail. This may be the first book that I have read about Canada that didn't involve a dog pulling a sled.

In the Skin of a Lion is a hazy, dreamlike novel, which transports its readers to the city of Toronto in the early 20th century. This is the time when countless immigrants came to the city - escaping misery, wars and poverty that was their daily life in the Old World. The glimmering lights of the New World shore brightly across the ocean, and they journeyed across it for weeks, seduced by their promises of a new and better life. These masses of immigrants - often poor and uneducated - built, formed and shaped the city into a vibrant multicultural metropolis that it is now. They had only their hopes and dreams, but they also had the will and strength to make them real. The hard labor of these men and women is directly responsible for the creation of countries that have since developed and prospered, but the very people who made them are mostly unmentioned and forgotten by history.

Ondaatje's novel is fiction, but filled with real events which took place in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada during that time: the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct between Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue; suppression of workers strikes and demonstrations by the police chief Dennis Draper; the murders of Viljo Rosvall and Janne Voutilainen, two Finnish-Canadian labor unionists, and the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose Smalls - a famous theare magnate who owned several venues across Ontario, and whose disappearance was never solved (even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was involved in it at one time, but ultimately chose not to pursue the case). Oondaatje apparently spent months in the City of Toronto archives to research material for the novel - and the best part is that a lot of material has been digitized and can be accessed online here, allowing us to see Toronto's history for ourselves - including the earliest known photographs of the city.

Ondaatje introduces several characters, some of which will appear again in his later novel, The English Patient. Sometimes their stories touch and correlate and sometimes they don't, dissolving like wisps of spider silk in the early morning sunlight. I suspect that years from now it will be difficult for me to remember the details of the novel, but what will stay with me are the images Ondaatje manages to conjure swiftly and without any real effort: a group of Scandinavian immigrants skating across a frozen river in a small town in Northern Ontario, defying its wilderness and iciness; wind throwing off a nun from an unfinished bridge, and a brave builder who risks his life to save her; a man escaping from prison and into the country, staying by himself in remote lakeside houses, the silence and vastness of the area having an almost preternatural quality. Is this how pioneers felt?

Like many immigrants the novel searches for its own goal but doesn't find it, leaving us with a collection of brief insights into the lives of its characters and surrounding. Still, Ondaatje in places writers well enough to warrant an extra star, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

I hope the NSW back line flows as smoothly as this powerful prose. NSW 13+

More like 4.5. That lost half star is because of some loose ends and some moments of confusion. But it's still brilliant. I might reconsider and give it 5 stars the next time I read it. 'Cause there will be a next time.

1930s Macedonian manic pixie dream girl falls in love with most boring Canadian alive

There were lots of levels of experiencing this novel. It was a hypnotic and powerful read by a wonderfully talented writer. That felt like 4 stars.

While it never ever feels like you’re reading description, at every moment you are not just immersed in but almost physically in a vigorous sensory experience of immediate place and physical experience.

However, the characters felt less like full characters and more like holders of a point to make. And the plot unevenly held my interest.

None of it appealed to me by description, but I was rapt in long sections.

I did tire of several things, though: the lengthy back and forth and extreme scenarios of an obsessive infatuation, the cat and mouse of the rich and famous guy and the tortured soul guy, and finally the pretty extreme physical beating almost every male body takes, multiple times and for multiple reasons, with a look-how-tough and walk-it-off result most of the time.

That’s a lot of issues written down against short praise, but the experience of this writing, the Canadian setting, and sections of the book where I really did care about characters and what happened mean this is actually a strong 4 stars for me.

Earlier this year I picked up his Warlight in an airport, got about halfway through it during the trip, and then lost track of the book. I was enjoying it and it comes back to me and I miss the story. The book will show up or I’ll get another one.

Seriously. This book was awful. It was recommended for me based on other thinges I liked so I read it. I cant imagine why anyone would recommend it.
It was slow, sick and completely disjointed. i have no idea what it was about or why I should care at all about any of the characters. The only time something happened that was interesting, the author NEVER got back to it.
I would recommend this book to fans of any of my other most loathed books. Perhaps someone who liked The Great Gatsby or The Stranger would enjoy the fact that the characters are so unpleasant and nothing happens in any meaningful way or order. I guess people who liked Holden Caufield might like Patrick, the main character of this stupid book.
I learned two things from reading this book: First, be careful about accepting gift books ,they aren't always better than nothing. And second, I will stay far far away from anything having to do with The English Patient.

Was supposed to read for a class last semester, and I really tried. I tried to read this 2 or three times and just got so bored or couldn’t focus on it. tbh i don’t know exactly what really happened, the plot just didn’t invite me in and i found myself zoning out constantly. But, i finished it finally lol

I'm currently rereading this small novel which I think is a masterpiece of restrained and beautiful writing. Ondaatje can infuse eroticism into the struggles of the working class--in the 1920s in this novel. He introduces the characters here that will reappear in The English Patient. It is about so many things: how immigrants cope with a new land, how they learn the language of that land (hilariously by listening to Fats Waller songs in addition to going to plays and memorizing the lines along with the actors.) How they find beauty in hardship and how they revolt against poor working conditions and prejudice. HIs characters accept that life is difficult but when the gulf is so wide between the rich and poor, he also portrays their realization that fighting back against oppression, is the only way to gain voice in this historical context.