The Aesthete.(Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero)(Book review)

Michael Ondaatje's new novel, "Divisadero" (Knopf; $25), is named for a street in San Francisco where one of the book's characters, Anna, once lived. None of the action takes place there, and the street is mentioned only twice, in passing. Ondaatje was asked recently why he chose the title. "It suggests division, and the concept of looking at something from afar, the way the writer Anna does," he explained. "It is a book of separations and divisions, of two stories that link up." This is not entirely helpful, but it does give a hint about how Ondaatje writes his novels and how he wants them to be read. He is not telling stories; he is using the elements of storytelling to ...