Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming Through Slaughter: Ondaatje's musical novel, June 26, 2004
I originally read this book as part of a fiction workshop. Unlike some other class-assigned readings, this book became a treasured part of my personal collection. Its form is rather unconventional -- it's rather like reading a novel of poetry. Admittedly, it can be hard to "get into," but I found that the more I read in one sitting, the greater impact Ondaatje's prose had on me. For me, Coming Through Slaughter was one of those rare gems that hovers over you until you've completed it. You find yourself thinking of Ondaatje's characters even when you've put the book away; they linger after the last page in the same way they seem to exist in the realm of the book -- a dream-like haze. The story is one of Buddy Bolden, a real jazz musician in New Orleans in the early 20th century. None of his music survives, but he is said to be one of the founders of jazz. And so Ondaatje explores the small pieces of Bolden's historical truth, creating a character and an entire book that revolves around his life, his love affair with music, his love affair with a woman, and the audience's love affair with him. Other historical characters emerge from the text, like E.J. Bellocq, a man who photographed prostitutes from the Storyville area of New Orleans. There are a lot of beautiful descriptions of abstractions, particularly of music (the way it looks, its color, the way it's created) and of emotion. As some other reviewers have suggested, they are descriptions tangible enough for a deaf person. And yet there is an ethereal element in Ondaatje's writing that makes it seem as though something much greater eludes you; it adds to Bolden's presence in the book. This is the first book I've read by Ondaatje, and I hope to read more.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give this book to a deaf person., January 16, 2002
Who can talk truthfully about the borderlands between the wilderness of insanity and the Eden of genius? Well, Michael Ondaatje, for one. Fans of "The English Patient," and later works should not pass this by. The most prosaic of M.O.'s fiction is poetic to say the least, but here, as in "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid," Ondaatje skirts the borders between poetry and novelty just as deftly as he does the two realms I earlier mentioned.The fictionalized history of Buddy Bolden, cornet-player, jazz pioneer, and psychopath comes alive in this tale of turn of the century New Orleans. It is a tawdry, violent, heat-soaked world, full of passion and lust, suffering and early death, brightly kindled in the reader's imagination by the spare, impressionistic images Ondaatje provides. But more than anything else, it is the jazz, the frenetic ferocity of the music that comes alive in the writing. If I had to explain the joys and powers of music to a deaf person, I would give up, and give him this book instead. Give this heady experience a try. And if you have any doubts about the trendiness/currentness of the topic, rest assured. Discussion and wonder regarding Buddy Bolden is very much alive today, and interest in this period in general endures. To give you an example, I noted recently an advertisement featuring the exhibition of photographs in an Uptown gallery by E.J. Bellocq, another (historical) character in Mr. Ondaatje's story.
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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fiction, not Fact, March 25, 2000
By A Customer
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.
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