Ondaatje's Secular Love has not received as much attention as his other works, most notably his 1992 novel, The English Patient, which became a critical and popular success, especially after it was adapted into a Hollywood film in 1996. Nevertheless, some critics have commented on Secular Love, and a handful have also commented specifically on "The Cinnamon Peeler." The overwhelming majority of critics discuss Secular Love in relation to the author's life, most notably the marriage breakup and new relationship that Ondaatje experienced while he was writing the poetry collection. Ann Mandel states in her entry on Ondaatje for Dictionary of Literary Biography that "In Secular Love . . . the pain of the marriage breakup and the sensual and emotional growth of new love make their way into the poems." In fact, as Lucille King- Edwards notes in Books in Canada, this autobiographical focus was not evident in his earlier...