Rating: 
Summary: Fiction, not Fact
Review: A good novel. This is not, however the true story of Buddy Bolden. I say this not as a critisism of talented writer Mr. Ondaatje, but rather of the dozens of people on-line who I have seen recomend this book to people for learing about Buddy Bolden. If you want to know the facts about the real life person named Buddy Bolden, read Donald Marquis' book "In Search Of Buddy Bolden". Mr.Ondaatje's novel is a work of fiction which uses the name of Buddy Bolden and a few events of his life, while deliberately ignoring others for dramatic effect (eg, the real Buddy Bolden wasn't a barber)in a setting and story which is mostly the product of Michael Ondaatje's creativity. I wish I didn't have to say this. I appologize to those who already are clear on the difference between fact and fiction. I am simply exasperated after 5 years of people wrongly recomending this book to people interested in early jazz as information about Buddy Bolden. For entertaining fiction, read a Michael Ondaatje novel. For the facts about Bolden, read Donald Marquis' book.
Rating:
Summary: Buddy Bolden
Review: A lyrical fable cast in New Orleans in the early 20th century, based on the short mad legendary life of cornet player Buddy Bolden. Ondaatje writes, about the bright withering mind of a passionate man, with dueling strokes of light and shadow, in rusted southern language. A remarkable prose poem; a silent whirring glance of an artist falling down. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Jazz lovers take note
Review: Although Buddy Bolden never made a record and the historical evidence surrounding his life has remained slight, he is a legend and remembered by virtually every contemporary musician of his day as the most powerful cornet/trumpet player of the day and very influential. This book is a poetical evocation of Mr Bolden's life and is written in a fragmented, impressionistic style by a writer who clearly loves the music.
Rating:
Summary: From an Enlish Literature Perspective...
Review: As I read Ondaatje's book, I became frustrated and synical. I found Coming Through Slaughter to be a relatively hard read, yet still invigorating. Reading this for an OAC, English Literature course, I found this book to not be a great read. Although enjoyable, and fascinating, I was confused with where the story was going, and how the events fit in in the order Ondaatje placed them. While regarding the themes, and style, I was taken aback by the beauty in which it was written.
Rating: 
Summary: Voices Calling Out To Me From Fog
Review: I am a writer, a poet, a singer and musician. I first read "Coming Through Slaughter" seven years ago, and it has haunted me since. I have read many, many books but none have stayed with me like this one. Ondaatje shows us how it is possible to weave a narrative with pieces of song, faded photographs, snatches of conversation. This is the way Buddy Bolden should be remembered, felt as a phantom stretching through history. Ondaatje conveys New Orleans, and its rightful place in time as the birthplace of jazz, precisely. I've passed this book on to many others and am secretly gleeful that The English Patient has gathered all the attention, because Coming Through Slaughter deserves much more careful consideration, is not for the masses but for lovers of poetry, music, and history
Rating:
Summary: Coming Through Slaughter: Ondaatje's musical novel
Review: I originally read this book as part of a fiction workshop. Unlike some other class-assigned readings, this book became a treasured part of my personal collection. Its form is rather unconventional -- it's rather like reading a novel of poetry. Admittedly, it can be hard to "get into," but I found that the more I read in one sitting, the greater impact Ondaatje's prose had on me. For me, Coming Through Slaughter was one of those rare gems that hovers over you until you've completed it. You find yourself thinking of Ondaatje's characters even when you've put the book away; they linger after the last page in the same way they seem to exist in the realm of the book -- a dream-like haze. The story is one of Buddy Bolden, a real jazz musician in New Orleans in the early 20th century. None of his music survives, but he is said to be one of the founders of jazz. And so Ondaatje explores the small pieces of Bolden's historical truth, creating a character and an entire book that revolves around his life, his love affair with music, his love affair with a woman, and the audience's love affair with him. Other historical characters emerge from the text, like E.J. Bellocq, a man who photographed prostitutes from the Storyville area of New Orleans. There are a lot of beautiful descriptions of abstractions, particularly of music (the way it looks, its color, the way it's created) and of emotion. As some other reviewers have suggested, they are descriptions tangible enough for a deaf person. And yet there is an ethereal element in Ondaatje's writing that makes it seem as though something much greater eludes you; it adds to Bolden's presence in the book. This is the first book I've read by Ondaatje, and I hope to read more.
Rating:
Summary: Coming Through Slaughter: Ondaatje's musical novel
Review: I originally read this book as part of a fiction workshop. Unlike some other class-assigned readings, this book became a treasured part of my personal collection. Its form is rather unconventional -- it's rather like reading a novel of poetry. Admittedly, it can be hard to "get into," but I found that the more I read in one sitting, the greater impact Ondaatje's prose had on me. For me, Coming Through Slaughter was one of those rare gems that hovers over you until you've completed it. You find yourself thinking of Ondaatje's characters even when you've put the book away; they linger after the last page in the same way they seem to exist in the realm of the book -- a dream-like haze. The story is one of Buddy Bolden, a real jazz musician in New Orleans in the early 20th century. None of his music survives, but he is said to be one of the founders of jazz. And so Ondaatje explores the small pieces of Bolden's historical truth, creating a character and an entire book that revolves around his life, his love affair with music, his love affair with a woman, and the audience's love affair with him. Other historical characters emerge from the text, like E.J. Bellocq, a man who photographed prostitutes from the Storyville area of New Orleans. There are a lot of beautiful descriptions of abstractions, particularly of music (the way it looks, its color, the way it's created) and of emotion. As some other reviewers have suggested, they are descriptions tangible enough for a deaf person. And yet there is an ethereal element in Ondaatje's writing that makes it seem as though something much greater eludes you; it adds to Bolden's presence in the book. This is the first book I've read by Ondaatje, and I hope to read more.
Rating: 
Summary: What is a Creole?
Review: I read the book not because I'm a fan of detective fiction, but because I wanted to learn a bit more of the history of Jazz and New Orleans: Fulmer's book more than fulfilled my expectations. Now I want to read his latest book to see what additional glimpses of Jazz and New Orleans Fulmer describes in it.
A few have criticized Fulmer because he called St. Cyr a Creole. Their argument is that St. Cyr is partially black and Creoles are never even partially black. However, they are wrong. The true origin of the word Creole is Spanish. This was the name given to the descendant of a Spanish-born mother and father when their child was born away from Spain. Later the term Creole was also used by the French to indicate a person born away from France whose parent were both born in France.
The original Creoles were indeed not mixed. However, the term Creole also has for some time been used as Fulmer uses it. It is a name given to the mixed blood descendants of blacks and the original French and Spanish settlers. Check your dictionary.
Rating:
Summary: Listening for Lost Notes
Review: Michael Ondaatje writes yet another stunningly original little book--in this case, a fictionalized meditation on Buddy Bolden, an unrecorded father of Jazz. Bolden 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. More 'experimental' in form than either The English Patient, or In the Skin of a Lion, it's as good a read as either
Rating:
Summary: Zippity-do-dah-crap
Review: Michael Ondaatje wrote this semi-biographical story of legendary jazz musician Buddy Bolden long before writing "The English Patient" and "Anil's Ghost". Ondaatje only writes two novels per decade, so it is both interesting and relatively easy to track his progress as an author. "Coming Through Slaughter" draws heavily on Ondaatje's poetic roots, as rhythmic sections of smooth unself-conscious dialogue alternate with straight narrative and passages of syncopated poetry. It is far shorter and contains more poetry than his later works -and this works well in a book about jazz. In this, it is less mature than "The English Patient", more rooted in a young man's poetic freeform and less in the disciplined construction of a novel. Perspectives shift from Bolden to his New Orleans friends, prostitutes, and the musicians around him who literally created jazz. Ondaatje has a unique style of piecing a novel together from disparate pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, pieces that don't always meet at the edges -at least until the whole is complete and the details slowly merge into a profound and intricate mosaic. This style, in its early stages, is on display here. Characters and themes emerge slowly. Ondaatje is a challenging author. You may be two pages into a scene and still not know quite who is talking, or about what, or when. But finally the rush of understanding as the scene fits logically into another that comes pages later. Buddy Bolden, New Orleans cornet player, early jazz genius who dropped out of sight for two years and then made a triumphant if short-lived return, before dying in an asylum. This is the source. The facts about Bolden remain murky, and Ondaatje has created a life around him. It is a story as much about jazz, New Orleans, and decay as it is about the sad life of a single horn player.
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