Introduction

Transnational Identities 339
[T]wo nations, two nationalities, meet and the space of the intersection is
transformed, for the result is memorable and affirmative. The implication is
touching and unexpected: despite the evolution of their lives as individuals
and family persons, the things that they shared have a quiet and sustaining
vitality and an undiminished, secret life that bridges worlds, countries, and
modes of being.
The novel suggests ultimately that Kip and Hana are not alone; that the secret
connection between them is irrevocable. In this way, the novel’s end
suggests, once again, to be sure, that it is the things that bring two nationalities
or two people together, and not the things that separate them, that are
ultimately of the greatest value. (“Nationhood” 7)
A new transnational space is created which allows Hana and Kip to again collapse
space and time as during their time in Italy and this space is so strong that it is
almost possible to physically connect across the boundaries of Hana and Kip’s
nation-states as symbolized through Kip’s catching the glass Hana drops in Canada
as well as his daughter’s fork in India (EP 321). Thus, transnationalism is not
ultimately rejected in the novel but tentatively but nevertheless hopefully reaffirmed.
The transnational space that was opened up in the villa community was
not an illusion, but a dream of a future in which transnational identities become
possible. It seems to echo the ending of Forster’s A Passage to India. As with the
friendship between Aziz and Fielding, the message for Kip and Hana’s younger
selves is “’No, not yet,’ […] ‘No, not there.’” (Forster 288). However, it is not Kip
who connects with Hana in this passage but Kirpal (EP 321) and as the use of
Kip’s real name emphasizes, only when both parties have equal rights and there is
no attempt to level out the differences between them can there be a connectedness
that will not discriminate against one of them. The novel therefore distinctly
rejects a postnational view of the world but on its last pages returns to the vision
of transnational identities from the start, yet under more hopeful auspices.
5.4. Divisadero: Piecing Together Imagined Worlds
With Divisadero, the theme of transnational identities and the spaces in which they
exist at first glance appears to have come to an abrupt halt. Even the usual focus
on connectivity that figured so prominently in Ondaatje’s previous fiction appears
to be missing. The narrative diverges and splits into two seemingly very different,
unconnected narrative strands: the novel’s first part is concerned with the lives of
Anna, Claire and Coop in California, their traumatic separation after Anna’s father
tried to kill Coop, her boyfriend, Claire and Coop’s eventual reunion and Anna’s
moving to France to investigate the life of the fictional writer Lucien Segura. The
second and third parts leave this storyline altogether – except for a few brief