What is the author's style in Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje?

Throughout Coming through Slaughter, Michael Ondaatje shifts perspective with the jarring rapidity of the jazz about which he writes. Much of the tale is told in the first person by the protagonist Charles ("Buddy") Bolden, a historical figure whose life story is her fictionalized. Buddy is a great jazz innovator, journalist, lover, husband, father and barber until jealousy makes him slash up a friend and client and then disappear for two years.

Sometimes Ondaatje narrates anonymously; other times a character narrates events. Virtually all the characters, who are drawn into the hunt for Buddy speak at some point in their own voices, painting a picture of Buddy's character and disposition. Buddy's whereabouts and concerns, usually mundane, weave in and out of whatever else is going on in the story. Some events are played back and forth between Buddy's perspective and other character's, most notably in the fight scene in the barbershop. Often the shifts in perspective are not well-marked and the reader struggles to make sense of the chaos.

The vocabulary and imagery are rich and varied, always evoking the boldness and unexpectedness of jazz. Music theory is inevitably discussed, sometimes in technical terms that will lose a non-aficionado, but the heat of the medium driving the performers—and Buddy most extremely—comes across clearly. Buddy's colleagues agree he is loud and talented but not on the quality of his music. Conveniently, Buddy never allows himself to be recorded, so there can be no scholarly analysis. By the 1970s the narrator finds that Buddy is forgotten in the place he had won brief fame. The opening and closing visits to the District, with faded signs and flaking paint, put Buddy's story in the long-term perspective.