Customer Reviews

Coming Through Slaughter

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

 

 

I am really disappointed by all the vapid, negative reviews for this novel that were submitted to date - it is pretty pathetic to critisize a novel because it was difficult to read. Ondaatje's 'Coming Through Slaughter' is vivid and overpowering. An amazing read - for people who like to be challenged by literature and who enjoy works that cannot be made into tv movies.

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.

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.

As I read Ondaatje's book, I became frustrated and synical. I found Coming Through Slaughter to be a relatively hard read, yet still invigorating. Reading this for an OAC, English Literature course, I found this book to not be a great read. Although enjoyable, and fascinating, I was confused with where the story was going, and how the events fit in in the order Ondaatje placed them. While regarding the themes, and style, I was taken aback by the beauty in which it was written.

Although Buddy Bolden never made a record and the historical evidence surrounding his life has remained slight, he is a legend and remembered by virtually every contemporary musician of his day as the most powerful cornet/trumpet player of the day and very influential. This book is a poetical evocation of Mr Bolden's life and is written in a fragmented, impressionistic style by a writer who clearly loves the music.

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.

I am a first year student studying at the same campus where Michael Ondaatje does teach and I think that this book is one which is a must read for everyone. I think that this book reveals alot about pepole during that time period and what they went through. Ondaatje does a brilliant job of describing Buddy Bolden. The one thing that I do not personally like about this book is that sometimes it can just get to be to much otherwise it is an excellent book and thumbs up to Michael Ondaatje.

A sad, composed book about a joyous improviser: the approach does not fit the subject.

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

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