DNF: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

by Michael Ondaatje

Did not finish. This was recommended by an author I follow on Twitter. The whole book is around 100 pages, and I wanted something I could finish quickly. But I gave up on this one pretty early.

It’s snippets of the inner mental life of Billy the Kid. Some of them are quite nonsensical. For example:

(To come) to where eyes will
move in head like a rat
mad since locked in a biscuit tin all day
stampeding mad as a mad rats legs
bang it went was hot
under my eye
...

And it goes on like that. Little poems, vignettes, and then some complete scenes. Lots of people seem to really like it, but I decided it’s just not for me.