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The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Audiobook
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(4.00) - 1,757 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
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 1880 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.
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"I tend to waver a lot on what I think of any given Ondaatje book, but Collected Works has been at the top of my Favorites list since I discovered it in a class on multigenre writing as an undergrad. Reading this, I understood for the first time that genre can be fluid - something I had sort of known, but never been able to articulate - and that story happens as it is going to happen. I love how Ondaatje tells the story of Billy the Kid through a pastiche of memories, photographs, short fiction, news articles, and poems. It doesn't matter what is or is not made up, it doesn't matter whether you choose to interpret the symbols (his hands! the birds!) or just wander through the narrative... The book is beautifully done, and remains a profound influence on my writing."
— Rafe (5 out of 5 stars)
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Moving and tragic. . . . Ondaatje is a poet and even his prose moves with rhythmic circular precision.
— The New York Times Book Review“The Collected Works of Billy the Kid strains one’s powers of description.... Ondaatje’s eye for detail is wonderful and he uses it poetically, with superb restraint.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid Listener Reviews
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" I must admit that I found the poetry a little bit hard to absorb, and the whole time I was reading I kept wondering what my ex-boyfriend (a poet) would think about it. The prose, on the other hand was wonderful, and I wish there had been more of both because by the time I got used to the two together, the book was over. So many reviewers here talk about re-reading, and I think I may have to do so myself. "
— Hannah, 1/15/2014 -
" best thing ever! "
— Enver, 1/10/2014 -
" An interesting book of poetry, some of the first i read start to finish, rather than jumping around. The photographs really augment the experience. I was never a fan of westerns, but this was no tale of the stereotypical billy the kid. A very interesting portrait. "
— Macksat, 12/29/2013 -
" Lyrical, part history, party prose poem. "
— Kate, 12/29/2013 -
" This book destroys conventions. It is a punch-you-in-the-face then throw-you-down-the-stairs experience, and a must for every serious reader. "
— Jon, 12/25/2013 -
" the book that caused me to switch from pre-med to English Lit "
— Laurie, 12/13/2013 -
" Think the English Patient was good? His earlier works were better! "
— Janie, 12/8/2013 -
" it seems somehow unfinished, but as he goes, I follow. his prose makes me drool, wander, & dream. love love love. "
— Megan, 11/28/2013 -
" beautifully mixed with poem and novel. I like Ondaatje. "
— Hirosasazaki, 11/21/2013 -
" Great chaster to 2666. Thanks Greg! "
— Kristianne, 9/21/2013 -
" An unusual, slim little multi-genre novela. Ondaatje mixes poetry and prose with want-ads, photographs, dictionary and encylopedia entries, dialogues, and play-script to create this haunting and beautiful little book. "
— Chris, 4/26/2013 -
" this haunts me with its streaming trains and dark animals and broken on purpose men. "
— Carrie, 7/25/2012 -
" Pretty wild writing. He invented his own style for this one for sure. "
— Scott, 7/6/2012 -
" Beautiful and crazed. poetry photography and prose build the portrait of Billy. "
— the, 3/15/2012 -
" My first experience with a multi-genre book, and I enjoyed it very much. "
— Heidi, 1/27/2012 -
" I picked this up on a trip to the Southwest in the '80s not really knowing what it was. I'd never read Ondaatje before. After I finished, I still didn't know what it was, except that it was fabulous, surprising, exciting. Turned me on to Ondaatje. This book needs more attention. "
— S., 11/4/2011 -
" Definitely not my favorite of Ondaatje's books. After The English Patient and Divisadero, both of which I loved, this one felt a bit like a G-rated version of Blood Meridian, poetic but foreign and too much of the dried out West for me. "
— Dana, 9/16/2011 -
" sparse and imaginative--stirs your imaginings. totally the opposite of Carter's story based on Lizzie Borden. "
— Liz, 7/6/2011 -
" I had to read this for a class, and it's a book I never would have picked up on my own. I loved the use of different genres to paint a picture of this classic character. "
— Steph, 6/25/2011 -
" beautifully mixed with poem and novel. I like Ondaatje. "
— Hirosasazaki, 4/1/2011 -
" Not so excited bout it. The only thing that kept me going was the fiction parts and the gruesomeness--it's gorier than anything I've read in a long time--and the uncertain ending. I cant really be bothered to try and understand it.. "
— Ash, 1/27/2011 -
" A bit of a twisted read, took me outside of my head, dropped me in the dirt, scraped me on the sole of my boot and stuffed me back into my head through an already mashed ear...made me wanna read it again as soon as it was done wit me. "
— Diablo, 1/19/2011 -
" Recommended for fans of Kerouac, Salinger, Brautigan, and 10-14 year old boys. "
— Chris, 9/8/2010 -
" one of my favorite books. i reread this every year "
— Diana, 9/5/2010 -
" I read this book for an in-class discussion. I was amazed by number of things we talked about. Ondaatje was really of top of his craft when writing this book. My hat is off to him. "
— Stephen, 5/12/2010 -
" Mr. Bonney's poetic interior monologues are a bit too well formed for this to ring true, but a great book nonetheless. I would give it more "stars" but I was never enamored with the American West. "
— Bryan, 4/12/2010 -
" sex on the toilet; inbred dogs; barefoot women making stew between shootouts "
— Ella, 2/22/2010 -
" I loved this book--the best multi-genre piece I have ever read. "
— Eric, 2/3/2010 -
" My favorite collection of poems, bar none. "
— Lise, 1/19/2010
About Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, a memoir, a nonfiction book on film, and eleven books of poetry. The English Patient won the Booker Prize and Anil’s Ghost won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Médicis.
About Nathan Osgood
Nathan Osgood is voice artist, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, and an actor who has appeared in such films as Mission: Impossible, Sahara, and Red Lights.