First Press Review for I AM BILLY THE KID:

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True Grit

Blouin’s impressive, imaginative western sees Billy the Kid on the run

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Excerpts:

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"takes readers down a path blazed by Canadian poets Michael Ondaatje and bpNichol"

"imaginative resurrection"

"wise, sardonic, reflective, deeply surreal"

"surprisingly funny"

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"The Billy of legend is said to have carved a notch into his pistol for each man he killed. Blouin’s Billy, who would consider that a waste of time that only a damn-fool writer could come up with, should give the author the chance to carve some notches on his pen this fall during Canada’s literary awards season. His aim is dead on target."

(Reviewed by Bob Armstrong in The Winnipeg Free Press)

 

 

“Reading Blouin’s virtuoso performance is inspiring, clearly brilliant, but also a little disturbing because you start to wonder how some people get to be so darn gifted. … Blouin is the type of author who gets rave reviews because he is talented, a risk-taker, and so unlike anyone else you have ever read.”

– Ottawa Citizen

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"The book is irreverent and saucy, unexpected and poignant, none of which gives it enough credit. Blouin writes with spare prose, every word perfect, and repeats the F word A LOT because what else fits with a story where everything has a “hole down which, lately, I cannot help but fall” moment? Conversations and life incidents flip around as if the characters are caught in a giant rotating gumball machine and you don’t know what’s going to pop out next, except you know it’s likely going to be bad, and they may or may not be the cause of their own misfortune but you are going to cheer for them anyway."

- The Mirimachi Reader

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"Michael Blouin has written a brilliant and complex narrative."

- This Magazine

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"You can pick it up, open it at random, read a few lines, stop, and then ponder the mysteries of life as they enveloped Johnny Cash and Alden Nowlan. Tomorrow and the next day, the experience can be repeated; a few more lines can be savoured."

- The National Post

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"Screamingly hilarious, politically incorrect and occasionally touching... Blouin does not write ordinary books. He never bores... every book gets nominated for some kind of award."

 - ArtsFile 

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"Writing like a Daily Devotional."

 - The Halifax Telegraph Journal 

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"Unlike anyone else you have ever read."

- The National Post

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"Evolves our understanding of what a novel can do."

- Alejandro Bustos