The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 3 March 1998
by Michael Ondaatje
This is the semi-fictional story of New Orleans jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, who lived at the turn of the 20th century, and died in an insane asylum in 1931. Bolden was said to be a genius with the cornet, but none of his music survives. The book is told from several points of view, by Bolden, his friends and lovers, and the denizens of the Storyville district of New Orleans. Later, Ondaatje inserts segments of actual documents that illuminate the last years of Bolden's life. The story is alternately violent, tragic and beautiful. Ondaatje, Booker prize-winning author of The English Patient, tells the story in a dramatic and poetic manner, not unlike the impressionistic style of William Faulkner. It is a short book, but with a dark power that arises from its brevity and the sparseness of the historical record.
Also by Ondaatje: [Running in the Family]
[Other Books set in the American South]