The Collected Works of Billy the Kid : Left Handed Poems
by Michael Ondaatje
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Description
William Bonney, a.k.a. "Billy the Kid," killed his first man when he was twelve. By the time he was twenty-one he had, by his own reckoning, slain nineteen more. In the intervening years he had become "Billy the Kid," bloodthirsty ogre and outlaw saint. Drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels and his own fund of empathy and imagination, Michael Ondaatje traces Billy's passage across the blasted landscape of 1880 New Mexico and the collective unconscious of his show more country. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a virtuoso synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I also just finished reading [The Collected Works of Billy the Kid] by [[Michael Ondaatje]] the day before yesterday. I think the charm of the book is that it evokes a kind of feeling, somewhere between romance, smut and violence, around a character little is known about for fact. I think everyone has heard of Billy the Kid, but no-one knows much about him or his story, and very little is known from reliable sources. Much of what appears to be known is just conjecture or legend. The book seems to operate well on that edge of the poetic imagination.
I did not find [The Collected Works of Billy the Kid] representable of [[Ondaatje]]s work. In the afterword it is explained that this was his first work, and is based on his youth fascination show more with the Wild West. show less
I did not find [The Collected Works of Billy the Kid] representable of [[Ondaatje]]s work. In the afterword it is explained that this was his first work, and is based on his youth fascination show more with the Wild West. show less
I knew nothing about this book before I picked it up. I had recently read "In the Skin of a Lion" and that book left me dumb with awe. First few pages in and I'm thinking - Wow, William Bonney was quite a wordsmith. Avant-garde. 1/3 the way through and I'm thinking - hold on, what am I reading here? So then I look it up on Goodreads and figure out this is fiction. But not just any old fiction, it's poetry, and not just any old poetry. No shit!, I say to myself, this is GLORIOUS! It's indescribable, but I'll try anyway. Ondaatje inhabits Bonney. He becomes corporeal, alive, wet, dirty, brutal, and human. So very human. 2 for 2, Ondaatje has struck me dumb.
William Bonney, otherwise known as Billy the Kid, was an infamous outlaw in the Old West. He killed his first man when he was twelve and died at twenty-one, an explosive life. In this collection of experimental poetry and poetry-prose, along with photographs and news reports, Ondaatje recreates the life of Billy the Kid from his own words.
An absolutely visceral piece of work. I went into it knowing near to nothing about Billy the Kid and his legend, but coming out of the work I feel like I’ve had a long conversation with him. I don’t know how close to the true Billy Ondaatje has come, if the personality quirks he’s captured are right, but I don’t think that’s really the point. Ondaatje’s language reveals an intelligent, show more thoughtful, doomed young man who has no regrets about what he has done, and whose everyday life is filled with such violence that it surprises me.
Ondaatje’s language is obviously the best part of the collection. His poetry is sharp and stinging, perfectly suiting his less than rosy subject. While those who are looking for a plot won’t find much of one, those who are looking for a bloody life told in searing verse will be certainly pleased. show less
An absolutely visceral piece of work. I went into it knowing near to nothing about Billy the Kid and his legend, but coming out of the work I feel like I’ve had a long conversation with him. I don’t know how close to the true Billy Ondaatje has come, if the personality quirks he’s captured are right, but I don’t think that’s really the point. Ondaatje’s language reveals an intelligent, show more thoughtful, doomed young man who has no regrets about what he has done, and whose everyday life is filled with such violence that it surprises me.
Ondaatje’s language is obviously the best part of the collection. His poetry is sharp and stinging, perfectly suiting his less than rosy subject. While those who are looking for a plot won’t find much of one, those who are looking for a bloody life told in searing verse will be certainly pleased. show less
This is a portrait of Billy the Kid as reflected in a thousand pieces of a shattered mirror. The book is composed of vignettes, poems, photos, and fragments of prose, each of which is a little stroke of brilliance and all of which together paint an incredibly rich, violent, and moving portrait of this young man and his legend. Ondaatje is quite a conjurer here.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a series of vignettes -- poems and prose poems -- that brutally brings the reader into the last year or so of Billy the Kid's life as he encounters, eludes and finally is killed by Pat Garrett. The descriptions of the New Mexico desert are unflinching as are the matter-of-fact accounts of those gunned down in the duel between the lawmen and the outlaws. We see Billy and Garrett in multiple views -- their own, each other's and from some of the women they encountered. It's a spare, but multi-layered account of survival on the edges of civilization where only amorality exists.
White walls neon on the eye
1880 November 23 my birthday
catching flies with my left hand
bringing the fist to my ear
hearing the show more scream grey buzz
as their legs cramp their heads with no air
so eyes split and release
open fingers
the air and sun hit them like pollen
sun flood drying them red
catching flies
angry weather in my head, too show less
White walls neon on the eye
1880 November 23 my birthday
catching flies with my left hand
bringing the fist to my ear
hearing the show more scream grey buzz
as their legs cramp their heads with no air
so eyes split and release
open fingers
the air and sun hit them like pollen
sun flood drying them red
catching flies
angry weather in my head, too show less
As someone who's read most of Ondaatje's other works, I have to say that this one--except in rare moments--just doesn't measure up to the level. The experimentation here does work--between fact and fiction, legend and history, poetry and prose--as perhaps we'd expect it to for Ondaatje. And the language, as ever, is often both poetic and memorable, worth lingering over and rereading. What ends up being less successful and making the work fall short compared to Ondaatje's other works are the characterizations. Whether there are simply too many characters included here to support Ondaatje's usual focus on detail, or whether the more detached nature of the work simply pushes us too far from their individual beings within the book, the show more reader can't quite become connected to the figures here, and the story itself is too disjointed for that to provide a narrative drive. So, in the end, while I enjoyed various points of the work, it did leave me disappointed in comparison to Ondaatje's other works (poetry & prose), and there's no reason that I finished the work in one sitting, outside of length and convenience. Readers of Ondaatje will find moments here that are as masterful as ever, but shouldn't expect too much more than those moments, and entertaining scenes of legend to bring it all together. show less
Charlie knew he was already dead now, had to go somewhere, do something, to get his mind off the pain. Charlie went straight, now closer to them his hands covered the mess in his trousers. Shoot him Charlie shoot him. The blood trail he left straight as a knife cut. Getting there getting there. Charlie getting to the arroyo, pitching into Garrett's arms, slobbering his stomach on Garrett's gun belt. Hello Charlie, said Pat quietly.
The fascination with Billy the Kid is more fascinating than the man himself, really, but this is a very good example. I just wish more of it held up like the above quote. The time shifts work really well; the perspective shifts not so much. Also, there are some jarring anachronisms and inaccuracies. (Look, I show more never said I hadn't been one of the fascinated!) If it had stuck more with the pathos of the thing, I would have really loved this. Still, the poetry is very good. (The library is kicking me out but I'll come back and put a scrap in later.) And as ever, Pat Garrett is the most sympathetic person in any story about Billy the Kid, so it got that right. show less
The fascination with Billy the Kid is more fascinating than the man himself, really, but this is a very good example. I just wish more of it held up like the above quote. The time shifts work really well; the perspective shifts not so much. Also, there are some jarring anachronisms and inaccuracies. (Look, I show more never said I hadn't been one of the fascinated!) If it had stuck more with the pathos of the thing, I would have really loved this. Still, the poetry is very good. (The library is kicking me out but I'll come back and put a scrap in later.) And as ever, Pat Garrett is the most sympathetic person in any story about Billy the Kid, so it got that right. show less
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ThingScore 75
Der Mensch William Bonney, seine Zeit, seine Umgebung, die Menschen, die sein Leben kreuzten, die Umstände seiner fortwährenden Flucht, schließlich sein Ende - all das wirkt ungefilter und direkt, so dass das Buch zu einer Art chronistischer Collage geworden ist, was in diesem Fall wertvoller und intensiver ist als eine faktenreiche Biographie. Und dieses Buch ersetzt seine Verfilmung, da show more es bei der Lektüre Bilder im Kopf des Lesers evoziert - im Gegensatz zu dem Roman, der diese Bilder meist komplett mitliefert. show less
added by Indy133
Lists
A Novel Cure
742 works; 23 members
Poetry Corner
187 works; 14 members
True Crime
156 works; 1 member
1970 Club
85 works; 2 members
Author Information
68+ Works 34,925 Members
Michael Ondaatje was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on September 12, 1943. He moved to Canada in 1962 and became a Canadian citizen. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a M.A. from Queen's University, Kingston, and taught English at York University. He has written several volumes of poetry, novels, and other works including show more There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do, The Dainty Monsters, Rat Jelly, Coming through Slaughter, Running in the Family, In the Skin of a Lion, Anil's Ghost, and The Cat's Table. His title, Warlight, made the bestseller list in 2018. Ondaatje has won numerous awards including the Canadian Governor General's Award in 1971 for The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and the Booker Prize in Fiction for The English Patient, which was adapted into a film in 1996. (Bowker Author Biography) Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka. He now lives in Toronto. (Publisher Provided) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Collected Works of Billy the Kid : Left Handed Poems
- Original title
- The collected works of Billy the Kid
- Original publication date
- 1970
- People/Characters
- Billy the Kid; Pat Garrett; John Chisum; Sallie Chisum
- Dedication
- This book is for many but especially for Kim, Stuart and Sally Mackinnon, Ken Livingstone, Victor Coleman and Barrie Nichol.
(1981 Picador edition) This book is for Kim, Stuart and Sally Mackinnon, Ken Livingstone, Victor Coleman and Barrie Nichol - First words
- I send you a picture of Billy made with the Perry shutter as quick as it can be worked -- Pyro and soda developer.
- Quotations
- (To come) to where eyes will move in head like a rat mad since locked in a biscuit tin all day.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)In the bathroom, I wash the loose nicotine out of my mouth. I smell the smoke still in my shirt.
- Blurbers
- McMurtry, Larry; Dillard, Annie
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 818.5407 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American miscellaneous writings in English 20th Century 1945-1999
- LCC
- PR9199.3 .O5 .C6 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 988
- Popularity
- 26,732
- Reviews
- 21
- Rating
- (3.96)
- Languages
- 6 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 34
- ASINs
- 4
