I had to read this book twice. Fortunately it's slim enough to make that feasible (118 pgs including the afterword). This book mixes poetry with prose as well as one jail house interview and a five cent novel. However I wasn't able to unravel anything of this book until reading his afterword.
"I discovered a stunning range of voices and emotional angles. What if I tried to read a book that allowed all these angles and subjects and emotions, but they all came from one person. As far as I could see, one voice never really spoke only in one way: it contained multitudes."One of the difficulties I had with my first reading was how fluid the perspectives were. Billy was I or Billy or Mr. Bonney and often all three in the same piece. I wasn't sure how to trust the narrator because he kept shifting his relationship to the subject matter. However if it's true that we find multitudes in any voice it must be particularly true of someone, forgive me for being totally cliche, with a reputation that is too big to contain in just one man.
Just look at Henry Winkler, do you think he's ever going to go a full day without someone throwing him a thumbs up and honking "eeehhhh" at him? But, seriously, Michael Ondaatje does a better job discussing this so go read it.
Although I found the afterword to be extremely helpful in understanding the book, I don't suggest that you start with it. I was glad to have the opportunity to form my own opinion of each of the characters and then use Ondaatje's afterword as a key to the parts that I didn't understand.
Also, If you're squeemish, this is a western in every sense. Lots of violence and brutality, very little proper medical care. so be forewarned.
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