This novel by MIchael Ondaatje, who wrote THE ENGLISH PATIENT, is arguably his best work, along with IN THE SKIN OF A LION and THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BILLY THE KID. It is the novel he wrote immediately after the Billy novel.
Written before he went commercial for a mass audience with THE ENGLISH PATIENT (which is not meant to be a criticism, writers develop, and THE ENGLISH PATIENT is a long, great way from airport fiction like Danielle Steele or James Patterson), this relatively short novel in adamantine prose creates the life of Buddy Bolden, considered to be the first jazz/blues soloist. Bolden played ragtime, mixed with blues, improvised freely, and so is often credited with inventing "jass" or "jazz" as it became more commonly known. He apparently recorded on cylinders but nothing of his work is known to survive. Jelly Roll Morton wrote a song called "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say," which is thought to be in Bolden's style. Many, many musicians have recorded this song. Buddy is reported to have gone mad from acute alcoholic psychosis in 1907, age 30, while playing in the streets of New Orleans. He spent the rest of his life in an asylum, dying in 1931, age 54.
This novel takes place in the period just before his madness. It employs two primary voices: Bolden's and a former friend of his, a detective named Webb, who goes in search of Bolden when he disappears.
Not divided into chapters, but into relatively short sections, this work traces Webb's search for Bolden, and Bolden's reasons for getting lost. It can be charming, as when Bolden takes his kids to school. It can be ruthless such as the incident of the "Fly KIng" or a razor fight in a barbershop. It can be extraordinarily elegant as when Bolden says his uses his cornet as "jewellery" to attract a woman.
Mr. Ondaatje deserves many kudos for not just writing a superb novel but, by so doing, bringing Buddy Bolden back into the general cultural consciousness. Highest recommendation.
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
A finely crafted jazz novel.
Reviewed in Canada on January 20, 2022
B. Hough
Oh, to have known Buddy Bolden.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2011Blade Runner
Wonderfully written, dodgy origins
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2016Anthony Karydis
great story interesting structure. Not the typicl novel you expected.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2017