44 pages 1 hour read

Michael Ondaatje

In the Skin of a Lion

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter 4

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “Palace of Purification”

The narrative jumps to 1930, at the construction site of Commissioner Harris’s latest industrial water project in Toronto—the tunnel under Lake Ontario (also referred to as “the waterworks”). Patrick lives alone and is a laborer on this site. He has followed in the footsteps of his father, preferring more dangerous work, and his responsibilities on this project include dynamiting. Like Nicholas (who in Chapter 2 is compensated more highly for his comfort with dangerous work on the viaduct), Patrick “is paid extra for each of the charges laid. Nobody else wants the claustrophobic uncertainty of this work, but for Patrick this part is the only ease in this terrible place where he feels banished from the world” (107). Commissioner Harris exploits the laborers in inhumane working conditions to fulfill his fantasy of an ornate “palace for water” (109).

Patrick lives among immigrant communities he can never fully belong to because of linguistic and cultural barriers, but he delights in his outsider status, feeling “deliriously anonymous” (112). He is welcomed among a group of Macedonian immigrants and finds himself at the Ohrida Lake Restaurant, where Nicholas and the nun sat more than a decade earlier.

Related Titles

By Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje

Anil's Ghost

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Coming Through Slaughter

Michael Ondaatje

Coming Through Slaughter

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje

Divisadero

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Running in the Family

Michael Ondaatje

Running in the Family

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje

The Cat's Table

Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

The Cinnamon Peeler

Michael Ondaatje

The Cinnamon Peeler

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Michael Ondaatje

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

Michael Ondaatje

Study Guide

logo

The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje

Plot Summary

logo

Warlight

Michael Ondaatje

Warlight

Michael Ondaatje