Michael Ondaatje"s poems have been celebrated by readers and writers alike for containing some of the most memorable and moving verse written in the past half-century. The Story combines Ondaatje"s sensual writing with watercolor illustrations by celebrated painter David Bolduc, making a unique item. Left-hand pages contain Bolduc"s art while right-hand pages contain Ondaatje"s poem — both typeset and in the author"s own handwriting. This elegant housing is a fitting accompaniment to Ondaatje"s elegaic poem, which follows his larger themes — love, memory, family, exile — even as it unfolds into "our dismantled childhoods," and offers readers the opportunity to extend its narrative into their own lives.