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jazzy_daveMichael Ondaatje "Coming Through Slaughter" (Bloomsbury)
This is a hypnotizing book written in prose that alternately sounds like poetry and feels like a soft blues song. It is dirty, sweet, heartbreaking, and candid all at once. Ondaatje has masterfully woven a reality of his own around the few bare facts known about the jazz player Buddy Bolden, creating fiction that feels like nonfiction that reads like fiction. In the end, this a book about life and about art, and what both can mean separately or taken together. It's not a traditional novel, and it's got more than its share of darkness, so it isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for a book that brings on a New Orleans atmosphere and explores the world of an unknown artist who lives with each moment, this is a phenomenal read that effectively takes you back in time with graceful playful language.
Not much is really known about Bolden; he was credited as the originator of jazz by people all wanting to claim the title themselves. Bolden couldn't really fight for himself since he'd never recorded any of his songs and he'd gone insane by the time jazz had gotten any attention. Locked up in a house of detention and lacking anyone who'd been with him his entire life, his story became built off of rumor and hearsay. He played whorehouses, he edited a gossip rag, he was a barber-- all that is known for sure is that he's the man who started jazz.
In part, this story is about the origin of jazz. At a higher level, the book is trying to define what makes an American legend and in turn, explains what makes an American tragedy (and how susceptible anyone is to tragedy). I don't want to misrepresent the book, jazz plays a major role in the narrative but the value comes from the way which Ondaatje shows Bolden relying on his music to communicate. This man, Buddy Bolden, who is quintessentially lost seems to find himself whenever he puts a trumpet to his lips.
The structure of the book makes it a fast read. By using short sections, Ondaatje makes the novella itself seem like a piece of gossip. The frame of the narrator trying to understand himself through the story of Bolden is incredibly important.
Ondaatje is here aware of all five senses on every page, and he commits to writing each of them, subtly, so that this is sure to reach any reader with its language if not with its character. I recommend this work whole-heartedly.
This is a hypnotizing book written in prose that alternately sounds like poetry and feels like a soft blues song. It is dirty, sweet, heartbreaking, and candid all at once. Ondaatje has masterfully woven a reality of his own around the few bare facts known about the jazz player Buddy Bolden, creating fiction that feels like nonfiction that reads like fiction. In the end, this a book about life and about art, and what both can mean separately or taken together. It's not a traditional novel, and it's got more than its share of darkness, so it isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for a book that brings on a New Orleans atmosphere and explores the world of an unknown artist who lives with each moment, this is a phenomenal read that effectively takes you back in time with graceful playful language.
Not much is really known about Bolden; he was credited as the originator of jazz by people all wanting to claim the title themselves. Bolden couldn't really fight for himself since he'd never recorded any of his songs and he'd gone insane by the time jazz had gotten any attention. Locked up in a house of detention and lacking anyone who'd been with him his entire life, his story became built off of rumor and hearsay. He played whorehouses, he edited a gossip rag, he was a barber-- all that is known for sure is that he's the man who started jazz.
In part, this story is about the origin of jazz. At a higher level, the book is trying to define what makes an American legend and in turn, explains what makes an American tragedy (and how susceptible anyone is to tragedy). I don't want to misrepresent the book, jazz plays a major role in the narrative but the value comes from the way which Ondaatje shows Bolden relying on his music to communicate. This man, Buddy Bolden, who is quintessentially lost seems to find himself whenever he puts a trumpet to his lips.
The structure of the book makes it a fast read. By using short sections, Ondaatje makes the novella itself seem like a piece of gossip. The frame of the narrator trying to understand himself through the story of Bolden is incredibly important.
Ondaatje is here aware of all five senses on every page, and he commits to writing each of them, subtly, so that this is sure to reach any reader with its language if not with its character. I recommend this work whole-heartedly.
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