the ORIGINAL btk --- found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_the_kid

The Collected Works of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje is a story stooped in fantasism and legend. Ondaatje attempts to enter the mind of the American West’s most famous celebrities. Not one of Hollywood though. Rather, Ondaatje brings the reader through the life of the western frontiers greatest murderers, Billy the Kid.

The book is sprinkled with both prose and lyrical poetry. Ondaatje tries numerous different forms of writing, and often even includes pictures in order to make his case. This allows him to penetrate the minds of different types of readers, and accommodates for many different preferences. He begins a piece of prose in all italics accompanied by a “pictures”. This picture however is just a blank box, leaving the readers imagination to figure out what lies between its lines. The first line of this italicized piece of prose reads “I send you a picture of Billy…”. Right off the bat Ondaatje wishes the reader to begin picturing Billy the Kid, because from this point on it will be his task to change and alter that picture with stories from his life.

Another great example of the forms Ondaatje expresses is found on page 81 in a piece entitled “The Texas Star March 1881. The Kid Tells All: ‘Exclusive Jail Interview’”. On display here is a completely unique way of attacking the poetic form. This long question and answer session allows Ondaatje to fill the reader in on a large amount of information about Billy’s life, without ever having to say it. He lets Billy tell all, in response to questions from a reporter (who might as well be the reader). One of my favorite lines in this sequence is the interviewer’s third question asking “I: You were reported as saying, as adding, to that phrase – ‘If I make it’ when asked that question before. B: Well, sometimes I feel more confident that at others”. These lines not only made me chuckle, but also really helped capture an overall theme of the novel.

In looking at the poetry in the book verses the prose I find that they have a strong symbiotic relationship. The prose is much more story based, and we learn a lot about interactions and specific stories relating to Billy. The poetry is much vaguer, and I see it as a venue for Billy’s personally feelings to be unleashed. Less so actions and interactions going on around him, and more so thoughts and even feelings that I believe come straight from Billy himself.

Despite the books lack of consistent poetic form, I find the collage almost soothing, in that I am never bombarded with one type of interpretation. Ondaatje was able to aptly fuse two forms, without either being to constricting, or too overpowering, upon the other.