Miker,
As you may know, Bukowski is an atypical
writer.
His life is probably something hard-boiled by
itself, but his refusal of a normal life and the rest of his
personality is really a voluntarily "anti-establishment"
statement. Add to this a lifelong alcoholism.
In my book, the guy is sincere. Maybe not for
everyone's taste, but sincere with himself and with his
readers.
And… he's a real author. No doubt about it.
Most of his prose writings are short novels,
novellas, assembled in volumes. And mostly
autobiographical.
If you want to discover Bukowski, I
suggest:
"Notes of a Dirty Old Man" (a must)
"Erections, ejaculations, exhibitions and general
tales of ordinary madness"
"The most beautiful Woman in the World"
"Women"
There is also a fantastic documentary, filmed at
his house during the last years of his life wherein he opens
himself and explains a little how he works.
I remember also (I saw it at the time- live on
TV), a long time ago (end of the seventies), when in Paris,
he was invited to a kind of literary talk show, leaded by
Bernard Pivot, in prime time on French TV.
A lot of local writers discussed and were
interviewed by Pivot while Bukowski was waiting in a armchair
on the set for his turn to be interviewed… with two bottles
of excellent white wine near him. The other guests were not
exactly intelligent or good writers. During the "preaching"
of a kind of woman writer with a "stiff upper lip", Bukowski
suddenly stood up an screamed: "Make this idiot female shut
up !! She's f…g wrong and stupid…" (something of that
order).
And, believe me, he was right. Really right.
Maybe not polite, but right. This self proclaimed female
writer was just an arrogant literary piece of sh… Pivot lost
his temper, but Buk did not speak only because of the wine as
Pivot tried to explain later. Buk's judgement was correct and
he was fed up by the arrogance and self-satisfaction of most
of the guests. This explaining that.
E.Borgers
POLAR NOIR
http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES
http://www.geocities.com/Atens/6384
Michael Robison <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com> a 飲it : One thing I caught in
Hannah's noir article was a reference to Bukowski's writing.
He mentioned Factotum and something else.
I'm wanting to give Bukowski a shot. I'd like two types of
recommendations. The first I'd like is what you'd recommend
as his best, across the board. The second is what would you
recommend by him that is within the hardboiled or noir
genre.
miker
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