Rating: 
Summary: Diary of a Grouchy Old Man
Review: This book has over a dozen nice drawings by R. Crumb, that visualize many different scenes from the text. These are very nicely done, with great care. Cool!The Bukowski text seems to be pretty mild and entertaining. There is very little hard edged insight, but you do get safe, humorous insights from the point of view of a veteran troublemaker who has somehow lucked into the "good life," happily married and resigned to retire in more dignity than the first part of his troubled life allowed. Buk seems pretty happy with life. This book is like diary entries from the early 1990's. Buk is slowly dying of tuberculosis, which will finally kill him in 1994. In the meantime, he writes with the satisfaction of knowing that he can entertain the anonymous reader (don't show up in his face thinking you're his buddy just cuz you've read his stuff). The anonymous reader being the only type of reader that he can respect and appreciate. Buk writes about some insightful traits of human nature in this book, as usual. The difference being that by the early 1990's, he has seemed to already released and vented the anger and pain of his younger days, in the writings of past decades. Reading this book is like hanging out with Buk, listening to him spin tales about what he's been up to lately. He's a grouchy old man, but he likes to be read, so he writes to make it worth your while. This book is probably better suited for confirmed Buk fans. Newcomers would be better off reading his novels from the 1970's and early 1980's, if interested in experiencing the writing that he is famous for. This book is a posthumous page-turner, with little of the famous Buk BITE, but it is a pleasant read. The only problem being that most folks don't want to read Bukowski because he's pleasant. Most folks seek him out because he's caustic.
| 
