THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BILLY THE KID PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Michael Ondaatje | 105 pages | 19 Mar 1996 | Random House USA Inc | 9780679767862 | English | New York, United States The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (Vintage International) |

Remember the first time you heard: Billy, you're so far away from home. Never kicked it. Then he started to write -- he had to write. He wrote a collage: of poems and poem fragments, prose, documentary testimonies. It's uneven, a broken western sky. But we're at the point where only impressionists can write Billy, who here says, Blood a necklace on me all my life. This is a book where a dying man's last words are, indelibly, get away from me yer stupid chicken. They went to kill it, to put it out of its misery; but it jumped and fled. Ran under the house. Couldn't get it out, but imagined the pain. Billy said he'd kill him. You should read this to find out how. If you want to know. And yet, Even though dead they buried him in leg irons. It's easy to be misunderstood. View all 8 comments. Aug 01, Khashayar Mohammadi rated it really liked it Shelves: poetry , idiosyncratic , canadian. One of the most original books of Poetry I have ever read. Ingenious, Bold and Lachrymose. May 19, April Kennedy rated it really liked it. I read this book years ago, and it is definitely one I won't forget. I love the legend of Billy the Kid, so to see it told through prose and candor and photographs was really interesting. A great Canadian read. In Canada. Interesting, and well-written, because Michael Ondaatje. Dec 03, John rated it really liked it Recommends it for: the West. It's fragmentary, nebulous, disintegrating, nonsensical, beautiful, weird, scary, quiet, even silent. It's got lots and lots of white space. For a reason. I think it's wonderful and I want to spend even more time with it, let it soak in a bit more before further reports. One thing to say: it's very much an Ezra Pound poetry as history sort of thing, but clearer but only because we know the myth immediately since it's still prevalent, as opposed to, say, the history of the Malatesta family in 16th century Italy. Enjoy it. Shelves: vacationreads , remainders. A book every bit as exalted and brutal as Blood Meridian , if slightly narrower in scope; it delineates a world in which life is cheap and short, and in which legend looms large. Feb 04, Tinea rated it really liked it Recommended to Tinea by: K. Shelves: poetry. Poems, snippets, and pictures. Read it twice. After shooting Gregory this is what happened I'd shot him well and careful made it explode under his heart so it wouldn't last long was about to walk away when this chicken paddles out to him and as he was falling hops on his neck digs the beak into his throat straightens legs and heaves a red and blue vein out Meanwhile he fell and the chicken walked away still tugging at the vein till it was 12 yards long as if it held that body like a kite Gregory's last w Poems, snippets, and pictures. After shooting Gregory this is what happened I'd shot him well and careful made it explode under his heart so it wouldn't last long was about to walk away when this chicken paddles out to him and as he was falling hops on his neck digs the beak into his throat straightens legs and heaves a red and blue vein out Meanwhile he fell and the chicken walked away still tugging at the vein till it was 12 yards long as if it held that body like a kite Gregory's last words being get away from me yer stupid chicken May 02, John rated it it was amazing Shelves: done-been-read-shelf. Michael Ondaatje is certainly one of the world's greatest living writers. My admiration for his writing craft is boundless but I will nonetheless attempt at a dispirited review of his first novel-ish publication. Although this is his first "novel" more on novel ish ness later , it ranks among his most unabashedly avant-garde next to The English Patient and his most recent Divisadero. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is one of the earliest attempts in North American letters at revising the W Michael Ondaatje is certainly one of the world's greatest living writers. The Revisionist Western is, again, one of my favorite sub-genres of all time, but I am still attempting objectivity. It is intensely violent but this violence is offset by an, at times, strikingly humanized portrayal of a violent murderer. Similarly or perhaps contrarily , Billy's portrayal is at times maddeningly animalistic. So too is Ondaatje's novel ish. It garners its power by oscillating amongst historical record, first person narrative, eye-witness accounts, dime-store novel, photography and most interestingly, poems which are intended to be read as if Billy the Kid wrote them which of course he didn't. Though it can be dizzying at times while at other times being stomach-churningly violent, this book is a must read for fans of the genre as well as fans of Ondaatje's peculiar, non-linear, pastiche narrative style. Mar 28, Jan rated it it was ok. There were bits in this mishmash that worked, but the overall effect was too disjointed and maybe even self- indulgent to make for a satisfying read. Then again, it's Ondaatje, and Annie Dillard and Larry McMurtry blurbed it, so maybe I failed the author rather than the other way around. View all 4 comments. This was beautifully written, and I look forward to reading more books by this author. Jul 07, Pierce rated it it was amazing. I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. I think, because I kind of discovered prose outside of learning, I've always viewed it as past-time more anything. My parents got me reading early, I feel like I was reading books quite early. I certainly had a well-established addiction to Famous Five by the time I was in first class seven-ish? But never poetry. The only poetry I was ever really exposed to was in the classroom. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt about books. Although I recently found a copybook full of poems I wrote about aged ten, but I think that was instigated by some competition in school. There's no motivation like prizes. So I have this thing where my eyes start to skitter past lines if I'm tackling something heavy. They just start jumping up and down the page of their own accord. I have to really force myself to focus and take my time. The point is: this collected works completely bypasses that. Because it's half poetry, half short-form prose. And you just naturally transition between the two. And the metrically structured stuff is rooted in the context of the rest of it. And the whole thing is just so beautifully written I could cry. Nov 05, M. Sarki rated it did not like it Shelves: abandoned. Made it about half way through. The book just did not connect with me. I did not believe it, hard as I tried. However, I am a big fan of the legend of Billy the Kid, but this work left me disappointed and adrift. After looking now at two of his books, it is clear I am not an Ondaatje fan even if he is an anointed one. And in this case, I think it makes the collected narratives we get perspectives from Sallie and Paulita too more interesting. And I think this formatting says something about the way we tell and have told stories. The narrative includes his relationship with John and Sallie Chisum, his formation of a gang with Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre , his standoff with Garrett in Stinking Springs, his arrest and escape from Lincoln, New Mexico , his escape and the ensuing murder of James Bell and Robert Olinger , and finally his death at the hands of Garrett. The book was written by Ondaatje in the late s in Canada, after he emigrated from Ceylon to England and further relocated to Quebec in order to attend college. Its most recent reprint was in by Vintage International. On its release, the volume received largely positive reviews. John Diefenbaker , a former Canadian prime minister, was reported to have "hated the award-winning book and called a news conference to denounce it. The poems that compose the novel have been adapted, by Ondaatje, into a play. Before the run in Toronto, Ondaatje revised his original script to better explore the female characters in the work. He stated that the original work was "a very male book" and that JoAnn, the director of the Tarragon Theatre 's Toronto production, "has brought out subtleties [in the female characters] that were hidden — too hidden. Ondaatje gave permission for the work to be the subject of a new adaptation by English theater director Dan Jemmett in Ondaatje agreed for the work to be adapted as a chamber opera by the English composer Gavin Bryars, with the libretto made by Jean Lacornerie, who staged the work. The novel was also a source of inspiration for the album Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron. What am I left with? As with all these reviews of mine, they are more of a personal response. Think of me as a hungry reader and writer looking for permission to write as my instinct demands, always reading as much as possible to find others who have played and experimented in ways, tones, forms and language. This book then is perfect for me right now. The language is lyrical, poetic, and detailed and not just for understanding that era. Mixing up structure and form gives an added depth to the content and is not just for show. The emotional strength of the poetry is fed by those changes in form, rhythms and syntax. The combination of styles here works so well that the story affected me deeply. Ondaatje is such a master with words. There is no doubting him. The Collected Works of Billy The Kid kept me turning pages, taking notes, pausing to breathe in an image. I was invested, engaged, and curious. At times I had to put the book down and stare out the window. What more could I ask for as a writer or reader? You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Summary | SuperSummary

The two of us, our criss-cross like a whip in slow motion, the ridge of action rising and falling, getting narrower in radius till it ended and we drifted down to Mexico and old heat. That there is nothing of depth, of significant accuracy, of wealth in the image, I know. It is there for a beginning. She leans against the door, holdsher left hand at the elbowwith her right, looks at the bedon my sheets—orangespeeled half peeledbright as hidden coins against the pillow. With me, Charlie, Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh. Charlie took my hat and went out to get wood and feed the horses. The shot burnt the clothes on his stomach off and lifted him right back into the room. Snow on Charlie's left boot. He had taken one step out. In one hand had been an axe, in the other a pail. No guns. Get up Charlie, get up, go and get one. No Billy. I'm tired, please. Jesus watch your hands Billy. Get up Charlie. I prop him to the door, put his gun in his hand. Take off, good luck Charlie. What do you think was the appeal of left-handedness to the mythology? How did you read it? Did you read it beginning-to-end, or did you find yourself doubling back to earlier pages? Did any of the passages change in meaning for you as you read on? Discuss the meaning of the various photographs and drawings in the book. The first page contains an empty black-rimmed frame. What is its significance? The final image, off-centre and dwarfed in the large empty frame, is in fact a photo of Ondaatje himself, as a boy in Ceylon. What do you think Ondaatje is conveying with its presence and placement? But the emotions belong to their authors. Were you ever uncertain? How did this affect your experience? Discuss the differences and similarities in the personalities of Billy and Garrett, who could be described as flip sides of the same coin. Compare the attributes of Angela Dickenson and Sallie Chisum, the primary female presences in the book. They each have power over Billy, in different ways. Sallie Chisum was a real person, and narrates some of the passages. Is this significant? Why did Ondaatje assign her this name? Might there be another reference implied? When Billy kills the ailing Ferns the cat p. But Angela D is terrified. Ondaatje emphasizes the straightness of this line repeatedly. Is there significance to this? Certain objects in the book seem to carry with them highly charged associations, for instance birds, rats, dogs, wrists and hands, the sun and planets, flowers, windows, clocks and machinery. Discuss the ways in which these objects are associated with particular ideas. Do the ideas remain hooked to these objects? Do they change? Is this important? There are many voices in this book, often overlapping in their very different descriptions of Billy and the events of his life. Could you trust any of them? Did you ever have difficulty distinguishing the voices? How did this impact your experience? Do you see a pattern in the choices Ondaatje has made in presenting the story in collage form? When does he use poetry, and when prose? How does one affect the other? Consider the passage on pages , in which Billy describes the horror of feeling his body turned inside-out due to heatstroke. There are many other instances in which the interior of the human body is exposed—do you see similarities in these descriptions? Do they convey an underlying theme? Read the passage on p. What is the significance of this passage? Consider where Ondaatje spent his childhood. Does this affect the meaning? He did adapt it for theatre. How would you render this book for such media? What would be gained? What lost? Often when we encounter violence in a work of literature, we anticipate that there will be some sort of resolution of that violence, some redemption or justice served. Do you think this happens in this book? This book was written at the beginning of the Vietnam war. Do you think this is relevant Who are the legendary outlaw figures of today, whose mythology overwhelms their fact? Are there any contemporary Billy the Kids? Home 1 Books 2. Read an excerpt of this book! Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. Overview Drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels, and his own prodigious fund of empathy and imagination, Michael Ondaatje's visionary novel traces the legendary outlaw's passage across the blasted landscape of New Mexico and the collective unconscious of his country. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a virtuoso synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth by a writer who brings us back to our familiar legends with a renewed sense of wonder. About the Author. Michael Ondaatje is a novelist and poet who lives in Toronto, Canada. Read an Excerpt These are the killed. Show More. Reading Group Guide 1. Related Searches. The Malice of Fortune. When Pope Alexander orders the courtesan Damiata to the remote fortress city of Imola to View Product. The Andromeda Strain. First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately established Michael Crichton as one of the brightest voices in contemporary literature worldwide. I love anything Michael Crichton writes. From the celebrated author of The English Patient and Anil's Ghost comes a remarkable, intimate novel of intersecting lives that ranges across continents and time. In the s in Northern California a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, Eddie Signwriter. A stunning debut novel —its power and prose evocative of such diverse writers as Faulkner, Ondaatje, Fugitive Pieces. In the Skin of a Lion. Bristling with intelligence and shimmering with romance, this novel tests the boundary between history and Bristling with intelligence and shimmering with romance, this novel tests the boundary between history and myth. Patrick Lewis arrives in Toronto in the s and earns his living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunneling beneath Lake Ontario. In the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Is it possible to understand the violence of Billy the Kid, one so young, and where did the need or ability to kill come from. Was there a source for all this? I trust Ondaatje completely. He writes with such empathy and the internal worlds are fascinating and lyrical. The pauses between moments build up the tension and the desire to know more kept me there. This book is from So what is it that carries so well? Ondaatje plays with form to suit the needs of each piece. What am I left with? As with all these reviews of mine, they are more of a personal response. Think of me as a hungry reader and writer looking for permission to write as my instinct demands, always reading as much as possible to find others who have played and experimented in ways, tones, forms and language. This book then is perfect for me right now. The language is lyrical, poetic, and detailed and not just for understanding that era. Mixing up structure and form gives an added depth to the content and is not just for show. The emotional strength of the poetry is fed by those changes in form, rhythms and syntax. The combination of styles here works so well that the story affected me deeply. Ondaatje is such a master with words. There is no doubting him. The Collected Works of Billy The Kid kept me turning pages, taking notes, pausing to breathe in an image. I was invested, engaged, and curious. At times I had to put the book down and stare out the window. What more could I ask for as a writer or reader? You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

There were bits in this mishmash that worked, but the overall effect was too disjointed and maybe even self-indulgent to make for a satisfying read. Then again, it's Ondaatje, and Annie Dillard and Larry McMurtry blurbed it, so maybe I failed the author rather than the other way around. View all 4 comments. This was beautifully written, and I look forward to reading more books by this author. Jul 07, Pierce rated it it was amazing. I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. I think, because I kind of discovered prose outside of learning, I've always viewed it as past-time more anything. My parents got me reading early, I feel like I was reading books quite early. I certainly had a well-established addiction to Famous Five by the time I was in first class seven-ish? But never poetry. The only poetry I was ever really exposed to was in the classroom. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt about books. Although I recently found a copybook full of poems I wrote about aged ten, but I think that was instigated by some competition in school. There's no motivation like prizes. So I have this thing where my eyes start to skitter past lines if I'm tackling something heavy. They just start jumping up and down the page of their own accord. I have to really force myself to focus and take my time. The point is: this collected works completely bypasses that. Because it's half poetry, half short-form prose. And you just naturally transition between the two. And the metrically structured stuff is rooted in the context of the rest of it. And the whole thing is just so beautifully written I could cry. Nov 05, M. Sarki rated it did not like it Shelves: abandoned. Made it about half way through. The book just did not connect with me. I did not believe it, hard as I tried. However, I am a big fan of the legend of Billy the Kid, but this work left me disappointed and adrift. After looking now at two of his books, it is clear I am not an Ondaatje fan even if he is an anointed one. And in this case, I think it makes the collected narratives we get perspectives from Sallie and Paulita too more interesting. And I think this formatting says something about the way we tell and have told stories. As the reader, we hardly get a linearly structured story. I found myself reaching back to previous pages often. But more importantly, in the way that Ondaatje writes about Billy, I think he emulates a resounding truth about legend and about oral history: we must always reach back into the past in order to find out anything, to make sense of anything presently. It would be remiss to talk about form without talking about the photographs as well. And what is that first page supposed to mean? For us to decide who he was along the way. Ondaatje finally gives us our cowboy photo at the very end. A child who arguably looks like he has bucked teeth. I see a kid who died a kid. So glad I started reading Ondaatje here. I'd like to think this was written before this multiple-style text became a postmodern stereotype. So bold. Perhaps I'd dock a half star for the occasional lapse, but the brilliant and the opaque more than make up for them. My copy is a edition with a then new afterward in which Ondaatje describes it as a 'mongrel work'. I can't wait to read it again. Jul 12, Marcos rated it it was amazing. A chapbook of some sort- a hybrid of prose, poetry, songs, and ballads that flesh out the life of one of America's most controversial outlaws. Ondaatje writes with heartstopping gorgeousness that when you finish this, or any other work of prose he's written, you find yourself feeling exhilarated and heartbroken at the same time. He is a genius. Dec 19, Jovana Gavrilovic rated it liked it. Sep 08, V. Truly bizarre and unexpected. Jan 19, Ben rated it really liked it. In this postmodern experiment with poetry, fragmented narrative, and photography, Ondaatje mines the essence, if not the facts, of Billy the Kid, using atmosphere, language, and form. Ondaatje abhors the cliches of Western imagery, and revels in blood, death, and a feral vision of nature. The narrative sections can be dense, tangly bits of writing, difficult to follow on a literal level but potent with atmosphere. Many are narrated by Billy, who is described by Garrett as having an "imagination which was usually pointless and never in control. The title of this book seems to have thrown many readers for a loop. Comically, even the library I borrowed it from had it shelved alongside The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, as if this actually represented the sum literary efforts of Billy the Kid. Instead, Ondaatje has given us the book that Billy should have written. You get the feeling that this is, in fact, how the mind of a gunfighter would express itself--in bursts and fits, sometimes with great eloquence and sometimes with carnal violence. Always on a hair trigger. Sep 10, Sidik Fofana rated it liked it. A short book of only odd pages, it features a collection of stream of consciousness poetry, prose, and photographs surrounding the legend of Billy the Kid. In the afterword Ondaatje discusses how he began collecting pieces about Billy the Kid early on in his career, researching what he could, and writing short pieces of poetry, imagining what Billy the Kid also known as William Bonney was actually like. The book is not your average story with a beginning, middle and end, but more a collection of poetry, prose and photos, almost like a documentary collection, except Ondaatje wrote a lot of the fiction, drawing from his own life experiences and incidents. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is nevertheless a fascinating read featuring Ondaatje at his best, revealing his skill and power with words, while offering up an interesting albeit unusual history on the legendary outlaw. For more book reviews and exclusive author interviews, go to BookBanter. Jan 10, Libbie Hawker L. Ironside rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction , poetry , literary-fiction , eat-prose-with-spoon , can-t-stop-thinking-about. A slim but gorgeous, highly experimental work, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid follows, somewhat disjointedly, the life of the famous outlaw and a bit of his legend, too. Through a mixture of Ondaatje's unparalleled poetry he is undoubtedly the most under- appreciated poet in the English-speaking world and his equally moving, memorable prose, the reader drifts in and out of Billy's mind, his experiences, and the perspectives of the people who knew and loved him. The book is deeply focused A slim but gorgeous, highly experimental work, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid follows, somewhat disjointedly, the life of the famous outlaw and a bit of his legend, too. The book is deeply focused on visual imagery, on the idea of photographs, of freezing a moment in time with foreground sharp and background blurred, on the act itself of making an image in order to preserve a memory. Poignantly, the book opens with a caption beneath a blank "photograph" and ends with the type-written text of a very old graphic novel, sans images, featuring Billy the Kid: his own legend obscuring his life, continuing forward after his death; Billy becoming unseen behind the image of Billy. It is a deeply moving, visceral work, as all Ondaatje's works are. This, his riskiest and strangest book, may also be his best -- and it is certainly his least appreciated. This is pure, emotional literary fiction at its best. Highly recommended. View 2 comments. Dec 06, Tyler Jones rated it it was amazing Shelves: poetry , violence , canadian-literature , westerns. But since you ask. What do you think Ondaatje is conveying with its presence and placement? But the emotions belong to their authors. Were you ever uncertain? How did this affect your experience? Discuss the differences and similarities in the personalities of Billy and Garrett, who could be described as flip sides of the same coin. Compare the attributes of Angela Dickenson and Sallie Chisum, the primary female presences in the book. They each have power over Billy, in different ways. Sallie Chisum was a real person, and narrates some of the passages. Is this significant? Why did Ondaatje assign her this name? Might there be another reference implied? When Billy kills the ailing Ferns the cat p. But Angela D is terrified. Ondaatje emphasizes the straightness of this line repeatedly. Is there significance to this? Certain objects in the book seem to carry with them highly charged associations, for instance birds, rats, dogs, wrists and hands, the sun and planets, flowers, windows, clocks and machinery. Discuss the ways in which these objects are associated with particular ideas. Do the ideas remain hooked to these objects? Do they change? Is this important? There are many voices in this book, often overlapping in their very different descriptions of Billy and the events of his life. Could you trust any of them? Did you ever have difficulty distinguishing the voices? How did this impact your experience? Do you see a pattern in the choices Ondaatje has made in presenting the story in collage form? When does he use poetry, and when prose? How does one affect the other? Consider the passage on pages , in which Billy describes the horror of feeling his body turned inside-out due to heatstroke. There are many other instances in which the interior of the human body is exposed—do you see similarities in these descriptions? Do they convey an underlying theme? Read the passage on p. What is the significance of this passage? Consider where Ondaatje spent his childhood. Does this affect the meaning? He did adapt it for theatre. How would you render this book for such media? What would be gained? What lost? Often when we encounter violence in a work of literature, we anticipate that there will be some sort of resolution of that violence, some redemption or justice served. Do you think this happens in this book? This book was written at the beginning of the Vietnam war. Do you think this is relevant Who are the legendary outlaw figures of today, whose mythology overwhelms their fact? Are there any contemporary Billy the Kids? Home 1 Books 2. Read an excerpt of this book! Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. Overview Drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels, and his own prodigious fund of empathy and imagination, Michael Ondaatje's visionary novel traces the legendary outlaw's passage across the blasted landscape of New Mexico and the collective unconscious of his country. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a virtuoso synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth by a writer who brings us back to our familiar legends with a renewed sense of wonder. About the Author. Michael Ondaatje is a novelist and poet who lives in Toronto, Canada. Read an Excerpt These are the killed. Show More. Reading Group Guide 1. Related Searches. The Malice of Fortune. When Pope Alexander orders the courtesan Damiata to the remote fortress city of Imola to View Product. The Andromeda Strain. First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately First published fifty years ago, The Andromeda Strain redefined the science fiction genre, and immediately established Michael Crichton as one of the brightest voices in contemporary literature worldwide. I love anything Michael Crichton writes. From the celebrated author of The English Patient and Anil's Ghost comes a remarkable, intimate novel of intersecting lives that ranges across continents and time. In the s in Northern California a father and his teenage daughters, Anna and Claire, Eddie Signwriter. Before the run in Toronto, Ondaatje revised his original script to better explore the female characters in the work. He stated that the original work was "a very male book" and that JoAnn, the director of the Tarragon Theatre 's Toronto production, "has brought out subtleties [in the female characters] that were hidden — too hidden. Ondaatje gave permission for the work to be the subject of a new adaptation by English theater director Dan Jemmett in Ondaatje agreed for the work to be adapted as a chamber opera by the English composer Gavin Bryars, with the libretto made by Jean Lacornerie, who staged the work. The novel was also a source of inspiration for the album Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron. While the album is not a direct adaptation of the work, there are several similar plot themes and general storytelling style [10]. Some of these themes are carried forward in some fashion to their second album, Strange Trails , although the influence is somewhat less pronounced. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Toronto Star. The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 March

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

At eight in the morning Garrett buried Tom O'Folliard. He had known him quite well. Then he went to the train station, put Azariah F. Wild on ice and sent him back to Washington. In Boot Hill there are over graves. It takes the space of 7 acres. There is an elaborate gate but the path keeps to no main route for it tangles like branches of a tree among the gravestones. Some from brain haemorrhages resulting from bar fightsat least 10 killed in barbed wire. In Boot Hill there are only 2 graves that belong to women and they are the only known suicides in that graveyardThe others, I know, did not see the wounds appearing in the sky, in the air. Sometimes a normal forehead in front of me leaked brain gases. Once a nose clogged right before me, a lock of skin formed over the nostrils, and the shocked face had to start breathing through mouth, but then the moustache bound itself in the lower teeth and he began to gasp loud the hah! I told no one. If Angela D. In the end the only thing that never changed, never became deformed, were animals. The cold dark grey of the place made my eyes become used to soft light and I burned out my fever there. It was twenty yards long, about ten yards wide. Above me was another similar sized room but the floors were unsafe for me to walk on. However I heard birds and the odd animal scrape their feet, the rotten wood magnifying the sound so they entered my dreams and nightmares. But it was the colour and light of the place that made me stay there, not my fever. It became a calm week. It was the colour and the light. The colour a grey with remnants of brown—for instance those rust brown pipes and metal objects that before had held bridles or pails, that slid to machine uses; the thirty or so grey cans in one corner of the room, their ellipses, from where I sat, setting up patterns in the dark. When I had arrived I opened two windows and a door and the sun poured blocks and angles in, lighting up the floor's skin of feathers and dust and old grain. The windows looked out onto fields and plants grew at the door, me killing them gradually with my urine. Wind came in wet and brought in birds who flew to the other end of the room to get their aim to fly out again. An old tap hung from the roof, the same colour as the walls, so once I knocked myself out on it. For that week then I made a bed of the table there and lay out my fever, whatever it was. I began to block my mind of all thought. Just sensed the room and learnt what my body could do, what it could survive, what colours it liked best, what songs I sang best. There were animals who did not move out and accepted me as a larger breed. I ate the old grain with them, drank from a constant puddle about twenty yards away from the barn. I saw no human and heard no human voice, learned to squat the best way when shitting, used leaves for wiping, never ate flesh or touched another animal's flesh, never entered his boundary. We were all aware and allowed each other. The fly who sat on my arm, after his inquiry, just went away, ate his disease and kept it in him. When I walked I avoided the cobwebs who had places to grow to, who had stories to finish. The flies caught in those acrobat nets were the only murder I saw. And in the barn next to us there was another granary, separated by just a thick wood door. Till my hand was black and the gun was hot and no other animal of any kind remained in that room but for the boy in the blue shirt sitting there coughing at the dust, rubbing the sweat of his upper lip with his left forearm. Billy posed standing in the street near old Beaver Smith's saloon. The picture makes him rough and uncouth. The expression of his face was really boyish and pleasant. He may have worn such clothes as appear in the picture out on the range, but in Sumner he was careful of his personal appearance and dressed neatly and in good taste. I never liked the picture. I don't think it does Billy justice. Not a story about me through their eyes then. Find the beginning, the slight silver key to unlock it, to dig it out. Here then is a maze to begin, be in. Two years ago Charlie Bowdre and I criss-crossed the Canadian border. Ten miles north of it ten miles south. Our horses stepped from country to country, across low rivers, through different colours of tree green. The two of us, our criss-cross like a whip in slow motion, the ridge of action rising and falling, getting narrower in radius till it ended and we drifted down to Mexico and old heat. That there is nothing of depth, of significant accuracy, of wealth in the image, I know. It is there for a beginning. She leans against the door, holdsher left hand at the elbowwith her right, looks at the bedon my sheets—orangespeeled half peeledbright as hidden coins against the pillow. With me, Charlie, Wilson, Dave Rudabaugh. Charlie took my hat and went out to get wood and feed the horses. The shot burnt the clothes on his stomach off and lifted him right back into the room. Snow on Charlie's left boot. He had taken one step out. In one hand had been an axe, in the other a pail. No guns. Get up Charlie, get up, go and get one. No Billy. I'm tired, please. Jesus watch your hands Billy. Get up Charlie. I prop him to the door, put his gun in his hand. Take off, good luck Charlie. What do you think was the appeal of left-handedness to the mythology? How did you read it? Did you read it beginning-to-end, or did you find yourself doubling back to earlier pages? Did any of the passages change in meaning for you as you read on? Discuss the meaning of the various photographs and drawings in the book. The first page contains an empty black-rimmed frame. What is its significance? The final image, off-centre and dwarfed in the large empty frame, is in fact a photo of Ondaatje himself, as a boy in Ceylon. What do you think Ondaatje is conveying with its presence and placement? But the emotions belong to their authors. Were you ever uncertain? How did this affect your experience? Discuss the differences and similarities in the personalities of Billy and Garrett, who could be described as flip sides of the same coin. Compare the attributes of Angela Dickenson and Sallie Chisum, the primary female presences in the book. They each have power over Billy, in different ways. Sallie Chisum was a real person, and narrates some of the passages. Is this significant? Why did Ondaatje assign her this name? Might there be another reference implied? When Billy kills the ailing Ferns the cat p. But Angela D is terrified. Ondaatje emphasizes the straightness of this line repeatedly. Is there significance to this? Certain objects in the book seem to carry with them highly charged associations, for instance birds, rats, dogs, wrists and hands, the sun and planets, flowers, windows, clocks and machinery. Discuss the ways in which these objects are associated with particular ideas. Do the ideas remain hooked to these objects? Do they change? Is this important? There are many voices in this book, often overlapping in their very different descriptions of Billy and the events of his life. Could you trust any of them? Did you ever have difficulty distinguishing the voices? How did this impact your experience? Do you see a pattern in the choices Ondaatje has made in presenting the story in collage form? When does he use poetry, and when prose? I read this book years ago, and it is definitely one I won't forget. I love the legend of Billy the Kid, so to see it told through prose and candor and photographs was really interesting. A great Canadian read. In Canada. Interesting, and well-written, because Michael Ondaatje. Dec 03, John rated it really liked it Recommends it for: the West. It's fragmentary, nebulous, disintegrating, nonsensical, beautiful, weird, scary, quiet, even silent. It's got lots and lots of white space. For a reason. I think it's wonderful and I want to spend even more time with it, let it soak in a bit more before further reports. One thing to say: it's very much an Ezra Pound poetry as history sort of thing, but clearer but only because we know the myth immediately since it's still prevalent, as opposed to, say, the history of the Malatesta family in 16th century Italy. Enjoy it. Shelves: vacationreads , remainders. A book every bit as exalted and brutal as Blood Meridian , if slightly narrower in scope; it delineates a world in which life is cheap and short, and in which legend looms large. Feb 04, Tinea rated it really liked it Recommended to Tinea by: K. Shelves: poetry. Poems, snippets, and pictures. Read it twice. After shooting Gregory this is what happened I'd shot him well and careful made it explode under his heart so it wouldn't last long was about to walk away when this chicken paddles out to him and as he was falling hops on his neck digs the beak into his throat straightens legs and heaves a red and blue vein out Meanwhile he fell and the chicken walked away still tugging at the vein till it was 12 yards long as if it held that body like a kite Gregory's last w Poems, snippets, and pictures. After shooting Gregory this is what happened I'd shot him well and careful made it explode under his heart so it wouldn't last long was about to walk away when this chicken paddles out to him and as he was falling hops on his neck digs the beak into his throat straightens legs and heaves a red and blue vein out Meanwhile he fell and the chicken walked away still tugging at the vein till it was 12 yards long as if it held that body like a kite Gregory's last words being get away from me yer stupid chicken May 02, John rated it it was amazing Shelves: done-been-read-shelf. Michael Ondaatje is certainly one of the world's greatest living writers. My admiration for his writing craft is boundless but I will nonetheless attempt at a dispirited review of his first novel-ish publication. Although this is his first "novel" more on novel ish ness later , it ranks among his most unabashedly avant-garde next to The English Patient and his most recent Divisadero. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is one of the earliest attempts in North American letters at revising the W Michael Ondaatje is certainly one of the world's greatest living writers. The Revisionist Western is, again, one of my favorite sub-genres of all time, but I am still attempting objectivity. It is intensely violent but this violence is offset by an, at times, strikingly humanized portrayal of a violent murderer. Similarly or perhaps contrarily , Billy's portrayal is at times maddeningly animalistic. So too is Ondaatje's novel ish. It garners its power by oscillating amongst historical record, first person narrative, eye-witness accounts, dime-store novel, photography and most interestingly, poems which are intended to be read as if Billy the Kid wrote them which of course he didn't. Though it can be dizzying at times while at other times being stomach-churningly violent, this book is a must read for fans of the genre as well as fans of Ondaatje's peculiar, non-linear, pastiche narrative style. Mar 28, Jan rated it it was ok. There were bits in this mishmash that worked, but the overall effect was too disjointed and maybe even self-indulgent to make for a satisfying read. Then again, it's Ondaatje, and Annie Dillard and Larry McMurtry blurbed it, so maybe I failed the author rather than the other way around. View all 4 comments. This was beautifully written, and I look forward to reading more books by this author. Jul 07, Pierce rated it it was amazing. I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. I think, because I kind of discovered prose outside of learning, I've always viewed it as past-time more anything. My parents got me reading early, I feel like I was reading books quite early. I certainly had a well-established addiction to Famous Five by the time I was in first class seven-ish? But never poetry. The only poetry I was ever really exposed to was in the classroom. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt I have a theory about my difficulties with poetry. Thinking about it like that I can understand how other kids felt about books. Although I recently found a copybook full of poems I wrote about aged ten, but I think that was instigated by some competition in school. There's no motivation like prizes. So I have this thing where my eyes start to skitter past lines if I'm tackling something heavy. They just start jumping up and down the page of their own accord. I have to really force myself to focus and take my time. The point is: this collected works completely bypasses that. Because it's half poetry, half short-form prose. And you just naturally transition between the two. And the metrically structured stuff is rooted in the context of the rest of it. And the whole thing is just so beautifully written I could cry. Nov 05, M. Sarki rated it did not like it Shelves: abandoned. Made it about half way through. The book just did not connect with me. I did not believe it, hard as I tried. However, I am a big fan of the legend of Billy the Kid, but this work left me disappointed and adrift. After looking now at two of his books, it is clear I am not an Ondaatje fan even if he is an anointed one. And in this case, I think it makes the collected narratives we get perspectives from Sallie and Paulita too more interesting. And I think this formatting says something about the way we tell and have told stories. As the reader, we hardly get a linearly structured story. I found myself reaching back to previous pages often. But more importantly, in the way that Ondaatje writes about Billy, I think he emulates a resounding truth about legend and about oral history: we must always reach back into the past in order to find out anything, to make sense of anything presently. It would be remiss to talk about form without talking about the photographs as well. And what is that first page supposed to mean? For us to decide who he was along the way. Ondaatje finally gives us our cowboy photo at the very end. A child who arguably looks like he has bucked teeth. I see a kid who died a kid. So glad I started reading Ondaatje here. I'd like to think this was written before this multiple-style text became a postmodern stereotype. So bold. Perhaps I'd dock a half star for the occasional lapse, but the brilliant and the opaque more than make up for them. My copy is a edition with a then new afterward in which Ondaatje describes it as a 'mongrel work'. I can't wait to read it again. Jul 12, Marcos rated it it was amazing. A chapbook of some sort- a hybrid of prose, poetry, songs, and ballads that flesh out the life of one of America's most controversial outlaws. Ondaatje writes with heartstopping gorgeousness that when you finish this, or any other work of prose he's written, you find yourself feeling exhilarated and heartbroken at the same time. He is a genius. Dec 19, Jovana Gavrilovic rated it liked it. Sep 08, V. Truly bizarre and unexpected. Jan 19, Ben rated it really liked it. In this postmodern experiment with poetry, fragmented narrative, and photography, Ondaatje mines the essence, if not the facts, of Billy the Kid, using atmosphere, language, and form. Ondaatje abhors the cliches of Western imagery, and revels in blood, death, and a feral vision of nature. The narrative sections can be dense, tangly bits of writing, difficult to follow on a literal level but potent with atmosphere. Many are narrated by Billy, who is described by Garrett as having an "imagination which was usually pointless and never in control. The title of this book seems to have thrown many readers for a loop. Comically, even the library I borrowed it from had it shelved alongside The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, as if this actually represented the sum literary efforts of Billy the Kid. Instead, Ondaatje has given us the book that Billy should have written. You get the feeling that this is, in fact, how the mind of a gunfighter would express itself--in bursts and fits, sometimes with great eloquence and sometimes with carnal violence. Always on a hair trigger. Sep 10, Sidik Fofana rated it liked it. A short book of only odd pages, it features a collection of stream of consciousness poetry, prose, and photographs surrounding the legend of Billy the Kid. In the afterword Ondaatje discusses how he began collecting pieces about Billy the Kid early on in his career, researching what he could, and writing short pieces of poetry, imagining what Billy the Kid also known as William Bonney was actually like. The book is not your average story with a beginning, middle and end, but more a collection of poetry, prose and photos, almost like a documentary collection, except Ondaatje wrote a lot of the fiction, drawing from his own life experiences and incidents. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is nevertheless a fascinating read featuring Ondaatje at his best, revealing his skill and power with words, while offering up an interesting albeit unusual history on the legendary outlaw. For more book reviews and exclusive author interviews, go to BookBanter. Jan 10, Libbie Hawker L. Ironside rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction , poetry , literary-fiction , eat-prose-with-spoon , can-t-stop-thinking-about. A slim but gorgeous, highly experimental work, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid follows, somewhat disjointedly, the life of the famous outlaw and a bit of his legend, too. Through a mixture of Ondaatje's unparalleled poetry he is undoubtedly the most under-appreciated poet in the English-speaking world and his equally moving, memorable prose, the reader drifts in and out of Billy's mind, his experiences, and the perspectives of the people who knew and loved him. The book is deeply focused A slim but gorgeous, highly experimental work, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid follows, somewhat disjointedly, the life of the famous outlaw and a bit of his legend, too. The book is deeply focused on visual imagery, on the idea of photographs, of freezing a moment in time with foreground sharp and background blurred, on the act itself of making an image in order to preserve a memory. Poignantly, the book opens with a caption beneath a blank "photograph" and ends with the type-written text of a very old graphic novel, sans images, featuring Billy the Kid: his own legend obscuring his life, continuing forward after his death; Billy becoming unseen behind the image of Billy. It is a deeply moving, visceral work, as all Ondaatje's works are. This, his riskiest and strangest book, may also be his best -- and it is certainly his least appreciated. This is pure, emotional literary fiction at its best. Highly recommended. View 2 comments. Dec 06, Tyler Jones rated it it was amazing Shelves: poetry , violence , canadian-literature , westerns. But since you ask. I do not claim to be an authority on poetry - least of all the experimental kind. Seems to me too many of thems that write it see a reader enjoying their work as a sign they did it wrong. But Billy is another story. Its like you been riding out on the dry plain all day and opening this book is like a cold beer with a whiskey chaser. Part imagination part reportage - which is another type of imagination alltogether - this book strikes at the truth that lives between the fancy and the fact. I feel I know Billy better from these hundred pages than from some egg-head history. After reading it I took a bath and the tub was ringed with red dirt. Aug 10, Kayla rated it it was amazing. I have wracked my brain, no joke - I actually whipped out a thesaurus in an attempt to find a word that might adequately describe Michael Ondaatje's Collected Works of Billy the Kid, but to no avail. I just don't think there is a word in the English language that would do it much justice. https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/f03a8235-f429-4a82-981b-cc60eb1fcfbc/handbuch-der-bodenlehre-682.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9585862/UploadedFiles/E728BA4D-610F-475C-DF3C-A6829DA2F446.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4636965/normal_6020d473311fa.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9589425/UploadedFiles/F58F05CE-9F08-DC05-219C-0ED755D3E36E.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9586590/UploadedFiles/36B5C3EF-DCBA-4E8E-8CF4-7E1C363A0B30.pdf https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4641620/normal_601fef12a356e.pdf