Coming Through Slaughter
Bringing to life the fabulous, colorful panorama of New Orleans in the first flush of the jazz era, this book tells the story of Buddy Bolden, the first of the great trumpet players--some say the originator of jazz--who was, in any case, the genius, the guiding spirit, and the king of that time and place. In this fictionalized meditation, Bolden, an unrecorded father of Jazz, 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. Though more 'experimental' in form than either The English Patient or In the Skin of a Lion, it is a fitting addition to the renowned Ondaatje oeuvre.
Reviews
Lindsy Rice@lindsyrice
Stephanie Honour@stephonour
Brittney Wilson@brijeanson
Janna@janna
Matti Scherzinger@matti
Highlights
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 146
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 139
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 131
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 111
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 90
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 75
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 69
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 56
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 37
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 37
Nathan Johnson@nathan
Page 24