Coming Through Slaughter
Based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Coming Through Slaughter is an extraordinary recreation of a remarkable musical life and a tragic conclusion. Through a collage of memoirs, interviews, imaginary...
show more
Based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Coming Through Slaughter is an extraordinary recreation of a remarkable musical life and a tragic conclusion. Through a collage of memoirs, interviews, imaginary conversations and monologues, Ondaatje builds a picture of a man who would work by day at a barber shop and by night unleash his talent to wild audiences who had never experienced such playing. But Buddy was also playing the field with two women, and inside his head was a ticking time-bomb which he was unable to stop.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780747572626 (0747572623)
Publish date: August 2nd 2004
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages no: 176
Edition language: English
Not my cup of tea. First book I have ever even looked at by Ondaatje. I will be taking a look at another one today and hope to have a better time of it. The book, and or subject, just couldn't keep my interest or attention. I did look at every page and read bits in pieces I found enough of as I skim...
I have read this book so many times, I can't even remember the first time I picked it up. Stunning. Simply stunning is the only word I can think of. Ondaatje's use of language is so textured and vivid it engages every sense when you read. You can almost smell, taste and touch the words to the point ...
Ondaatje once again uses his own unique story telling method which gives us bits of conversations, recollections, letters, documents, poems and stories into a puzzle-like collection. With this, the reader pieces it all together in order to get a full picture of who this relatively unknown character ...
So this wasn't something I would ever pick to read on my own (read for school), and although it was interesting in its own way, I found it really hard to get into. I disliked most of the characters and the prose (which I suspect is styled in a jazz flow/ to mimick the mind of a mad man) threw me off...
19 years ago
Log in with Facebook 
