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A review by nevinator
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje
3.0
“No one knows how a dolphin makes both whistles and echolocation clicks simultaneously.”
This book is a fictional retelling of real life jazz creator “Buddy” Bolden fall into insanity. This short 151 page book is trying to capture a man’s life through the rhythms of written jazz. Sporadic narration, repetitive poetry, and broken men spread the pages of this book. Every time you feel like you are following the tempo of the story, it changes and keeps you wondering what happens next.
Though, you get what you read and this book is only offering an experience that I don’t think I’ll repeat. It tries to capture the tension of enjoying the joyfully music of life, what is a sense of purpose, and what direction does one need in life that, just like Bolden, the book goes mad trying to act like a dolphin.
The experience of trying to find music through noise, people in messes, and sanity in depravity is a theme I do enjoy, it is how you get into my treasured books really easily, yet this one falls flat and I can't explain why.
This is also a hard book to recommend as an experience. My recommended litmus test is if you are not drawn in by the experimental writing style and the two paragraph summery on the back, I would say do not read it.
If the themes touched upon tickle an interest, I will always recommend “The Brothers Karamazov” and looking specifically at the dynamics of Grushenka, Dimitri, and Ivanovana. It covers the same depravity.
In many ways, reading this book is what the title advertises.
This book is a fictional retelling of real life jazz creator “Buddy” Bolden fall into insanity. This short 151 page book is trying to capture a man’s life through the rhythms of written jazz. Sporadic narration, repetitive poetry, and broken men spread the pages of this book. Every time you feel like you are following the tempo of the story, it changes and keeps you wondering what happens next.
Though, you get what you read and this book is only offering an experience that I don’t think I’ll repeat. It tries to capture the tension of enjoying the joyfully music of life, what is a sense of purpose, and what direction does one need in life that, just like Bolden, the book goes mad trying to act like a dolphin.
The experience of trying to find music through noise, people in messes, and sanity in depravity is a theme I do enjoy, it is how you get into my treasured books really easily, yet this one falls flat and I can't explain why.
This is also a hard book to recommend as an experience. My recommended litmus test is if you are not drawn in by the experimental writing style and the two paragraph summery on the back, I would say do not read it.
If the themes touched upon tickle an interest, I will always recommend “The Brothers Karamazov” and looking specifically at the dynamics of Grushenka, Dimitri, and Ivanovana. It covers the same depravity.
In many ways, reading this book is what the title advertises.