Rating: 
Summary: Producer John Runnette remembers the night he recorded "Buk"
Review: "Charles Bukowski wasn't anxious to record his poems and short stories that night. He certainly didn't want to go to a recording studio to do it, and not because he wanted star treatment. Just opposite. For a man who sometimes promulgated a boisterous two-fisted image, Bukowski was surprising shy and quiet. He liked his routine, the days at the racetrack and nights in front of his computer, writing or sometimes just playing computer games. His good fortune shocked him. "I'm sixty five", he told me," and I just bought my first house." He had an expensive car, too which amazed him.He seemed happy that the disorder and chaos that had inspired so much of his writing was behind him. For that reason he was worried about letting people into his private world. For three hours one night, Charles Bukowski read his poems and stories into a microphone that sat on the coffee table in his living room. It was curious to watch him read. His face was as craggily as the photos suggest; he held a bottle of beer in one hand, a clove cigarette in the other. When he read though, innocence rose up in him as simple and direct as his sentences and language. Listen to the stories of his childhood and you'll hear that quality. This is the other Bukowski, and if some of his stories and poems reveal and relish in anger, remember that outrage is the other side of innocence. After three hours of recording Bukowski had had enough. He didn't want to memorialize any more of his writing. He didn't take himself that seriously. What he wanted to do was have another beer and just talk about writing, which we did, late into the night." -John Runnette, Producer
Rating: 
Summary: Bitter, amazing realism
Review: A friend gave me a beat-up copy of this book last year and said I would like it. After reading one of the brutal stories of Charles' childhood (the one where he and his friends nearly hang a boy to death), I knew that I had discovered something. Charles Bukowski has since become my favorite writer, and this is the best intro one can have to this great man's work. I have been impressed (and occasionally amazed) at every piece of work Charles has ever written, from his memorable, deep poetry (that is completely free of pretension) or his poignant stories that reveal just as much of me as they do of him.
Rating:
Summary: To hear the man behind the poems
Review: Amazing! I've read many of his works, and to be able to hear his voice is like a dream. You can hear the toll life has taken on him, the feeling that he puts into his poems, and even how much he hates poetry readings. Now that he is dead, it's like a voice from the grave, and I recomend anyone who enjoys his work to pick this up just to hear the man behind the legend.
Rating:
Summary: run with the hunted
Review: Bukowski is brilliant. This cassette captures his genius and a reading voice that is both unexpected and personal. The only down side is that the publisher keeps listing this as a two cassette package. It is not, but still worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: An astonishing Bukowski freakout in sequental form!
Review: From the first stories of torrid youth soiled by violent surroundings, pubesant angst, raging hormonal deformation and crazy, fevered thoughts on life; a soul bored with droll literature immediatly knows an explosion of curious proportion is awaiting...
Bukowski and his works, which here are laid out a rather skewed biographigal format, take the reader on a ride that is unrelentlessly real. The mental images brought on by an almost too simple string of words leaves one reeling in slight awe. Bukowski is not for everyone though. His stories are mean, nasty and hold no court for those easily offended. Real life from a wilder perspective is showcased in wonderfully perverse screaming 3-D Technicolor(tm.) that will definatly peak the cerebral senses, if you can handle it!
Rating:
Summary: The best introduction to Bukowski
Review: Heard about Buk and don't know where to start? This is the place. A great selection from his novels, short stories, and mainly, poems. The book is edited wonderfully and it reads like a continuous book. A great week awaits you if you are reading Bukowski for the first time, and will probably want many of his books after reading this one. I bought this book as a present to a friend while I was on a trip, but after reading it I decided to keep it. A few problems: there is no table of contents and you dont know from what books the poems are taken.
Rating:
Summary: If you're at all interested in Buk, pick this up.....
Review: I actually gave this book to a friend of mine as a birthday gift. This is an essential book for anyone interested in sampling different facets of Bukowski's writing without spending a lot of money. I've had it for a few years, and always end up re-reading parts of it. Lots of poetry, short stories, and quite a few novel excerpts. The only complaint I have is that they do not always tell the reader which book the excerpt/poem comes from. But, very good overall.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgetable reading experience
Review: I am not going to go over the contents of the book, or much about Charles Bukowski, because if you are considering this book you must know something about the man and his work. I will just give you my impression of this collection of work.
No collection can ever really be complete, there are always new things to add, new commentary, newly discovered works, transcripts of records and unpublished letters, but this book does an excellent job in its attempt.
To me Charles Bukowski will always be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, because of the sheer brutality and honesty his work emanates. It is funny, sad, sadistic, cruel, scathing, enlightening and thought provoking. Everything I like to read. This is poetry for people who are disgusted by verse of flowers, trees and Greek mythology. This is RAW human emotion and experience smeared out onto paper. It is not perfect, and it is not trying to be. It doesn't always work, but there in lies the subtle beauty of Bukowski's efforts. the guts to try. The attempts at honesty, clearly blocked by his unwillingness to divulge everything, and his cynicism of man.
This collection is shocking in its beauty, and inspiring by its simplicity. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: I am not going to go over the contents of the book, or much about Charles Bukowski, because if you are considering this book you must know something about the man and his work. I will just give you my impression of this collection of work.
No collection can ever really be complete, there are always new things to add, new commentary, newly discovered works, transcripts of records and unpublished letters, but this book does an excellent job in its attempt.
To me Charles Bukowski will always be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, because of the sheer brutality and honesty his work emanates. It is funny, sad, sadistic, cruel, scathing, enlightening and thought provoking. Everything I like to read. This is poetry for people who are disgusted by verse of flowers, trees and Greek mythology. This is RAW human emotion and experience smeared out onto paper. It is not perfect, and it is not trying to be. It doesn't always work, but there in lies the subtle beauty of Bukowski's efforts. the guts to try. The attempts at honesty, clearly blocked by his unwillingness to divulge everything, and his cynicism of man.
This collection is shocking in its beauty, and inspiring by its simplicity. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I listen to this tape on long car rides. It's not as good as Hostage, but then again it's different. Bukowski is eerily calm reading this, and the stories, such as Emily Bikowski, about his first memory and his relationships with his family touch the heart, especially the ones anout his father because, like mine, his father is military, and thinks in a way that is almost the complete opposite of Hank. Pick it up, but don't expect to be amazed.
|
