Susan is Ondaatje’s half-sister and Mervyn’s stepdaughter from his second marriage to Maureen. Ondaatje visits with Susan during his time in Ceylon. Compared to the children in Mervyn’s first family, Susan and her sister Jennifer remember Mervyn as a good father, so long as they weren’t around when he drank.
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Susan Character Timeline in Running in the Family
The timeline below shows where the character Susan appears in Running in the Family. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kegalle (i)
...him. Mervyn remarries in 1950; his second wife Maureen and two new children Jennifer and Susan live at Rock Hill with him. Mervyn takes up chicken farming and separates himself from...
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Ondaatje and his half-sister Susan revisit Rock Hill as adults with their own families. The once large house now seems...
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Kegalle (ii)
...the shotgun and an air rifle, the others start up a game of cricket with Susan and “play[] for most of the afternoon.”
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Tea Country
Ondaatje drives up into the hills, into tea country, to visit his half-sister Susan and her husband Sunil. They meet in town to buy groceries and then drive up...
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“What We Think of Married Life”
While Ondaatje sits with Susan and her husband, he reflects on the varying natures of his parents. Despite Mervyn’s drunken...
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Final Days Father Tongue
...design posters and come up with marketing slogans. Mervyn always invents jobs for her and Susan to do that he can pay them a small wage for, such as catching beetles...
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