Coming Through Slaughter
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Review
'A beautifully detailed story, perhaps the finest jazz novel ever written' Sunday Times 'The downtown world of bars, whores, streetlife bursting with music is evoked so vividly, so pungently you seem to breathe in the atmosphere ... I haven't been so excited by a new writer for a long time' Time Out 'Not only the best jazz novel ever written, but one of the best novels of any kind published in English in the last ten years' The Musician 'Michael Ondaatje is a novelist with the heart of a poet' Chicago Tribune
Product Description
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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Buddy Bolden is a near-mythic figure in the music world - claimed by many to have "invented" jazz near the turn of the (last) century. Here Ondaatje has taken the few facts known about the cornetist - there are no known recordings - and produces a superb novel that tells its story through song lyrics, poetry and breathtaking prose.
Bolden is portrayed in all his complexities and incongruities, lacking the necessary self-awareness or self-reflection to prevent his descent into madness. This is an emotionally brutal novel, contrasting against the beautiful and lyrical writing.
You don't have to be a jazz or even a music fan to enjoy this novel - in some ways the music is outside of the main narrative, which primarily focuses on the primal and divergent emotions of a man who carries a gift which is beyond the capacity of its vessel.
If you enjoyed this book, you'll probably also like Geoff Dyer's "But Beautiful", another gifted writer, who also can capture the transcendental quality of music and its creators.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can understand how this book has made a deep impression on some people, and I think, in parts, it had the same effect on me. It is very emotional and sometimes painfully intimate in its closeness to Bolden as he goes mad. Sometimes the prose is perfectly accurate, and places you right in the middle of the steamy New Orleans summer along with the lost souls trying to make a life there. His description of the life dictated by hardship, heat, booze, whores and jazz is colourful and buzzing, accentuated by the unorthodox methods of writing that Ondaatje uses throughout the book.
But it is just those unorthodox methods which bothered me. Most of the time it worked beautifully, and made for a atmospheric and beautiful book. But sometimes it went a bit too far for me, with the sudden changes in narration, the chaos and the elaborate trains of thought veering away from the present moment. I found this a little too experimental and disjointed, distracting from the otherwise passionate and intense story.
But it is just those unorthodox methods which bothered me. Most of the time it worked beautifully, and made for a atmospheric and beautiful book. But sometimes it went a bit too far for me, with the sudden changes in narration, the chaos and the elaborate trains of thought veering away from the present moment. I found this a little too experimental and disjointed, distracting from the otherwise passionate and intense story.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This guy can really write. Do yourself a favour and turn off the wall-screen for a minute.
It's got jazz, too. It's about a guy went crazy inventing the solo. Maybe. Never recorded a note, but people like Ellington, Bechet and Dr John have songs about him.
I can't pronounce his name, but if I could, I'd say Ondaatje with similar reverence I reserve for Buddy Bolden.
It's got jazz, too. It's about a guy went crazy inventing the solo. Maybe. Never recorded a note, but people like Ellington, Bechet and Dr John have songs about him.
I can't pronounce his name, but if I could, I'd say Ondaatje with similar reverence I reserve for Buddy Bolden.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant on the offbeat
Despite its physical thinness Coming Through Slaughter is a poetic opus to music, love and creativity that both transcends and rejoices in its New Orleans era setting
Published 8 days ago by summaecodex
A haunting, haunted melody
Through poetic, rhythmic language, Ondaatje projects impressionistic snapshots of a lost world, and a lost musician. Read more
Published 9 days ago by neverendings
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