Bukowski for Beginners (For Beginners Series)

Rating:
Summary: Decent overview, but any Bukowski book would be better intro
Review: I liked this book because it explained the highpoints of Buk's writing career, centered mostly around his novels. This Beginners' book explained a little about each book, so now I know which one's to start with. This book takes a few hours to read, so it's a decent crash course, much faster than putting the pieces together by reading several Buk novels, but reading this Beginner's book is not as meaningful as having actually read a Buk novel = the real thing.

I suppose if you read any Buk book, you will know if you like Buk or not, since it's pretty much all the same style. The main use for this book is that Buk's main publisher, Black Sparrow, does not do a good job of describing Buk's books on the back of the book jackets. So a Beginner really does need help elsewhere, from an established Buk fan, or from this Beginner's book, to know what is going on.

I now know that I would have been better off spending the cost of this Beginner's book on an actual Buk novel, but I did not realize that until AFTER reading this Beginner's book. Now I know which books to focus on, (the novels), out of the dozens of Buk books available.

This is an informative read, but you'd be better served by buying and reading any Buk novel, and then you would have actually READ a Buk novel, instead of having just read ABOUT Buk in general.

Rating:
Summary: Never heard of Bukowski until this book
Review: P>I would not have read about this man but for this book so THERE!

All that said, Bukowski, though interesting, strikes me as the true author of the ideas of "Betrachtung eines Unpolitischen" first penned by Thomas Mann. Bukowski may write from the depths of poverty and the American working class, but his perspectives are politically ambigious or neutral...he should endorse socialism but doesn't.

Partly, this book makes me think of Maxim Gorky's _Lower Depths_ as a point of comparison...but Bukowski...it's hard to say...apolitical, uncritical...he expresses much angst and suffering but doesn't investigate significantly the root causes of such suffering and depridation;

I'll take Terry Eagleton's lit.crit any day in preference, I'm afraid. I sympathize w/ Bukowski but...

Nevertheless, I feel enriched to at least know about him--which I probably would not have known were it not for this intro book from a famous series of documentary comic boks I deeply respect.

Rating:
Summary: A good introduction
Review: Polimeni and Rep have written/illustrated a nice overview and history of Charles Bukowski's life and work. I had read one collection of Bukowski's stories prior to reading this book, so knew a little bit about him; this book has definitely rounded out the picture and helped me decide what other books might be worth reading. I thought it was an interesting touch to lay out Bukowski's passion for drink and other suspect pursuits with no judgment whatsoever--they let the reader draw his own conclusions and focus on the writing. Also, the comic book style makes it a very easy read; I read it in an afternoon.

The purpose of the book is to give the unfamiliar reader a sense of who Bukowski was and the quality of his writing. And on that score, I think it succeeds very well.