Michale Ondaatje's breakout novel Coming Through Slaughter is based upon the life of Buddy Bolden. Little is known about Bolden's personal life other than his music and a single photograph of him taken by a man named Bellocq. Attempting to envision what sort of experiences would drive a man to express himself in such a revolutionary expressive manner as to invent jazz, Ondaatje creates a fictional narrative of Bolden's life based upon those two facts. The novel is part of the renaissance of adult historical fiction in North America of the previous three decades.
Ondaatje introduces readers to Bolden through the voices of those who know him. Each of the chapters jump between narrators -- Bolden himself, some of his friends, and a third-person omniscient narrator. These varied perspectives contribute to the overall vague sense of Bolden's life. The point is to interject supposition into the narrative in order to remind the audience of the malleable nature of reputation. Doubtless Bolden envisioned himself differently from his companions, but the multiple perspectives offer unique insight into his motivations which he may not even have admitted to himself.
Ondaatje traces Bolden's life from marriage and working as a barber in New Orleans until his death in a mental hospital three decades later. After his wife Nora has an affair with a friend, Bolden gets into a fight and leaves town without a word. Nora becomes alarmed after three months of his absence and seeks help from a former friend, Webb, a detective. He follows rumors until he finds Bolden's picture in Bellocq's studio. Apparently Bellocq and Bolden have been helping one another with their art, Bellocq with his photography and Bolden with his music. After a heated argument Bellocq sets his studio on fire and dies in the collapse. Webb finally tracks down Bolden in Shell City where he's living with a couple while he has an affair with the wife. Without too much of a fight, Bolden returns to Nora only to learn that she has invited a new man to live with her and be a substitute father to his children. Bolden accepts this change, but he throws himself deeper into his career as a musician and joins a brass band. Gradually he starts becoming schizophrenic as he writes music increasingly approaching jazz. After completely breaking down he's committed to a mental institution where he's greatly abused to the point of severing his already tenuous hold on reality. Twenty-four years later he dies in the hospital and is buried in an unmarked grave with no friends.
This chilling depiction of the artistic process illustrates the alarming connection between high art and mental illness. Ondaatje is mainly concerned with the intense suffering which is communicated in Bolden's music. He uses that pain to create an artificial storyline which could explain the emotion. With beatings, adultery, schizophrenia, and a life lived in the shadows of society, it's no surprise Bolden lost his mind. As his music becomes more creative and jazzy, he slips deeper and deeper into his schizophrenia. The price he pays for his creative genius is mental stability. He loses his will to live by the end when he's stripped of his coronet in the hospital.
