Customer Reviews

Coming Through Slaughter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a writer, a poet, a singer and musician. I first read "Coming Through Slaughter" seven years ago, and it has haunted me since. I have read many, many books but none have stayed with me like this one. Ondaatje shows us how it is possible to weave a narrative with pieces of song, faded photographs, snatches of conversation. This is the way Buddy Bolden should be remembered, felt as a phantom stretching through history. Ondaatje conveys New Orleans, and its rightful place in time as the birthplace of jazz, precisely. I've passed this book on to many others and am secretly gleeful that The English Patient has gathered all the attention, because Coming Through Slaughter deserves much more careful consideration, is not for the masses but for lovers of poetry, music, and history

Michael Ondaatje wrote this semi-biographical story of legendary jazz musician Buddy Bolden long before writing "The English Patient" and "Anil's Ghost". Ondaatje only writes two novels per decade, so it is both interesting and relatively easy to track his progress as an author. "Coming Through Slaughter" draws heavily on Ondaatje's poetic roots, as rhythmic sections of smooth unself-conscious dialogue alternate with straight narrative and passages of syncopated poetry. It is far shorter and contains more poetry than his later works -and this works well in a book about jazz. In this, it is less mature than "The English Patient", more rooted in a young man's poetic freeform and less in the disciplined construction of a novel. Perspectives shift from Bolden to his New Orleans friends, prostitutes, and the musicians around him who literally created jazz. Ondaatje has a unique style of piecing a novel together from disparate pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces that don't always meet at the edges -at least until the whole is complete and the details slowly merge into a profound and intricate mosaic. This style, in its early stages, is on display here. Characters and themes emerge slowly. Ondaatje is a challenging author. You may be two pages into a scene and still not know quite who is talking, or about what, or when. But finally the rush of understanding as the scene fits logically into another that comes pages later.

Buddy Bolden, New Orleans cornet player, early jazz genius who dropped out of sight for two years and then made a triumphant if short-lived return, before dying in an asylum. This is the source. The facts about Bolden remain murky, and Ondaatje has created a life around him. It is a story as much about jazz, New Orleans, and decay as it is about the sad life of a single horn player.

A good novel. This is not, however the true story of Buddy Bolden. I say this not as a critisism of talented writer Mr. Ondaatje, but rather of the dozens of people on-line who I have seen recomend this book to people for learing about Buddy Bolden. If you want to know the facts about the real life person named Buddy Bolden, read Donald Marquis' book "In Search Of Buddy Bolden". Mr.Ondaatje's novel is a work of fiction which uses the name of Buddy Bolden and a few events of his life, while deliberately ignoring others for dramatic effect (eg, the real Buddy Bolden wasn't a barber)in a setting and story which is mostly the product of Michael Ondaatje's creativity.

I wish I didn't have to say this. I appologize to those who already are clear on the difference between fact and fiction. I am simply exasperated after 5 years of people wrongly recomending this book to people interested in early jazz as information about Buddy Bolden.

For entertaining fiction, read a Michael Ondaatje novel. For the facts about Bolden, read Donald Marquis' book.

Michael Ondaatje writes yet another stunningly original little book--in this case, a fictionalized meditation on Buddy Bolden, an unrecorded father of Jazz. Bolden remains throughout a tantalizingly ungraspable phantom, the central mysteries of his life, his art, and his madness remaining felt but never quite pinned down. Ondaatje's prose is at times startlingly lyrical, and as he chases Bolden through documents and scenes, the novel partakes of the very best sort of modern detective novel--one where the enigma is never resolved, but allowed to manifest in its fullness. More 'experimental' in form than either The English Patient, or In the Skin of a Lion, it's as good a read as either

A lyrical fable cast in New Orleans in the early 20th century, based on the short mad legendary life of cornet player Buddy Bolden. Ondaatje writes, about the bright withering mind of a passionate man, with dueling strokes of light and shadow, in rusted southern language. A remarkable prose poem; a silent whirring glance of an artist falling down. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book. I had just finished But Beautiful for the second time and noticed a reference to Coming Through Slaughter. If you are interested in the history of early american music; the blues, jazz, and the struggle of the brilliant black americans who made it this is a great read. Much more than a history text, this book is a heartrending story told through the eyes, ears, and heart of the talented and troubled trumpeter, Buddy Bolden. Highly recommended!

First, it should be understood that this story is BASED on what is known about Buddy Bolden and his music, but much of the narrative is invented. Anyone wanting to know what really happened to Bolden should look elsewhere, as this book is basically a patchwork quilt of suppositions and exaggerations. However, that said, the writing itself is incredible, an unforgettable experience. Ondaatje attempts to penetrate the mystery of Bolden (the man and the myth) by employing prose paragaphs that are as straight and severe as cut wrists ... There is nothing extemporaneous here, nothing that doesn't tie directly into the theme, and nothing that will not be remembered long after the final page is finished. It's prose/poetry saturated with powerful, often disturbing imagery that explores questions like, what does the topography of a true artist's heart look like? and, do not the essential loves, passions, fears, and sicknesses we feel connect us all, whether we are blue-collar workers toiling in oblivion or modern-day Beethovens reinventing entire genres? As far as Bolden goes, the book ostensibly attempts to tell the reader he may have lost his mind because he transcended his bodily form through music, and his mind disintergated in the attempt ... But it is much more than this, and it is about much more than Buddy Bolden.

This book will haunt you long after you have finished reading it. M. Ondaatje tells the life story of Buddy Bolden, the greatest trumpet player, who some accredit with the birth of jazz in New Orleans. Through family and friends' memories laid open as witness and testimony, the author presents Bolden's life. Precious few documents exist as tangible evidence of his life and work, but thanks to those that do, the author is able to flesh out this man's life, success and misery in such a way that you finish the book with no doubt whatsoever that what you have read is indeed what happened. The title is what intrigued me, and the title is what will stay with me.

Better than any other writing I've ever seen, this book exposes the significance of one-off, non-reproducible performance as one of the inputs to the creation of jazz around 1900. The "strictly ear band".."used to kill".."the real reading band." The book's subject, Buddy Bolden, is given a core "fear of certainties," which is a marvelous expression of one of the delights of jazz. Stylistically the book is written in an analogous free form. The book is literature, as jazz is music, but the grammatical structure changes as often as the author sees fit. And no question, this book is beautifully written.
But even beyond jazz, Ondaatje has an almost throw-away passage about human compulsion, contrasted to motivation. It's memorable. At one point, Bolden has fled from his jazz life. He disappears, and finds an acceptable certainty in the love of a woman. But his friend tracks him down, and explains to him that he must return to jazz. His friend "was releasing the rabbit he had to run after, because the cage was open now and there would always be the worthless taste of the worthless rabbit when he finished." No doubt the origin of such compulsion to perform lies in the evolutionary selection of homo sapiens, but, from a romantic perspective that one sentence conveys completely the glory and doom of the human race.

I absolutely love this book. I think it is so well written and really interesting. Ondaatje includes such a variety of things about Bolden in this story and weaves them together in such an interesting way. definitely one of the best books i gave read in awhile. Also, i think he does an excellent job of representing the intensity and exuberance of Bolden's music while still representing the sadness of his actual life.