Blog #5- Billy the Kid

Michael Ondaatje's multi-genre book, The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, was very confusing at first. I did not understand what was going on, nor did I understand who was speaking each page to page. Instead of getting into the book, I was actually starting to get a little frustrated because of the way the book was written. I have never read a multi-genre book before, so it seemed harder than it was. However, as I read further into the book, I understood how the “system” worked.

There are many qualities that I really liked from the book, regardless of the confusion that I had in the beginning. What made a huge impression on me was the images of Billy that were included in the first and last pages of the book, which I thought was out of the ordinary. The first picture was blank, which made the readers wonder how he looked like. It was like solving a mystery and I, as a reader, did not know who the culprit was. After finishing the book, there was a picture of Billy in the last page and he was wearing a cowboy outfit, just like any other typical kid. Who ever thought that a boy that looks innocent would be known as a murderer?