Introduction

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Sonja Lehmann
glimpses of Anna’s life in France – and focus on the life of Lucien Segura. Subjectwise,
this latest of Ondaatje’s novels is not as expressly concerned with the
formation of transnational identities as the texts previously analyzed. Yet, I am
going to read it as an outlook on the further development of these issues in Ondaatje’s
fiction. Reviewers have called Divisadero “oblique, glancing and frustratingly
inconclusive” (Parker) and “a more stubbornly eclectic Ondaatje book than
most” (Maslin). Taken at face value it certainly is but a more thorough analysis
reveals such astonishing parallels that Divisadero might well be seen as a dissolution
of boundaries taken to extremes.
5.4.1. Anna’s Journey
While Divisadero seems radically different from Ondaatje’s other novels, this latest
book shares a common motif with the previous ones: a journey. As shown above,
journeys in the other texts, however, are not only literal journeys of the characters
but contain an additional deeper, symbolic meaning. Considering this, Anna’s
travelling to France deserves special attention since in Ondaatje’s fiction a journey
never appears to express a mere change in location. Unusually, on the surface
Anna’s voyage does not offer much in terms of the transnational connectedness –
or any connectedness for that matter – which figures so prominently in the other
books I have analyzed. Even though the novel’s protagonist travels to another
country, her journey is just that: a journey. As she says, she “came to France […]
to research the life and the work of Lucien Segura” (Divisadero 135) 43 which does
not convey an intent to stay permanently. On the contrary, she makes it clear that
this is not “her real world” (D 66). Yet, it is hard to say what Anna’s real world is
if one considers her life up to the point of her arrival in France. In terms of plot,
she got estranged from her family, ran away, studied French at university (D 89)
and eventually became a professor of French Literature (D 88). Home or belonging
are accordingly difficult to define for her.
Interestingly, from the beginning Anna does not only surround herself by everything
French but also uses it as an escape from real life. Thus she pretends to be
a “French girl” on her flight from home (D 144) by not speaking English to the
man who gives her a lift in his car (D 147). While this could be explained as a
mere attempt to advert unwanted conversation, the influence of French culture on
her life becomes more substantial later on. As her constant references to French
literature show, she clearly sees her life reflected through these books. For example,
she compares her Californian history to Balzac (D 13), a practice which she
continues during her stay in France, likening the landscape of Europe to Stendhal
(D 77). Fiction seems to be part of her reality and as present as the landscape sur-
43 From now on abbreviated as D.