Women

Rating:
Summary: Another Gut-splitter From Bukowski...but maybe for men only.
Review:
Love him or hate him, you must admit this writer's style is distinct. WOMEN is Bukowski's up-and-down account with a score of women, following a four year period of celibacy. At this time in his career, Bukowski was receiving some attention as a writer -- and suddenly the old man (well, not so old -- only in his 50s) found himself being regarded as a kind of status symbol by a host of crackpot females. This is the premise -- and if you're a feminist, you're bound to be insulted from page one. Bukowski throws off the gloves and goes for his deliberate style of brutal honesty in describing these encounters, which are all very funny. WOMEN is more related to POST OFFICE in its use of bawdy/slapstic humor; and both these books, mark Bukowski's most amusing works. (Both HAM ON RYE and FACTOTUM are darker, more somber books.) Anyway, if you're interested in following Bukowski's picaresque adventures with the opposite sex, pick up this novel! Another strong recomendation for Bukowski-lovers, is THE LOSERS' CLUB: Complete Restored Edition -- which actually features Bukowski in it. I picked a "used" advance copy of this novel and it is awesome! Funny, gritty and blunt -- Bukowski would have approved, no doubt.

Rating:
Summary: so so
Review: Women is the third novel of Bukowski's trilogy and it is not as good as the other two (Post Office, Factotum). There is as much sex and alcohol in this novel as there is in the previous two, but one has the impression that it does not have the same kind of energy. Factotum is a celebration of failure, while Post Office is portrait of the madness of ordinary life. You might think that this is (or is not) the kind of stuff books should talk about, but both books are very intense. And this intensity makes them very interesting. Women does not have the same kind of intensity. It is just one more installment in the Henry Chinsaski saga, it does not add much to what Bukowski had written before or in the short stories, yet it is much better tha some/most of the stuff Bukowski published in the 1980s.



Rating:
Summary: Good but repetitive
Review: "Women" starts off really strong, the character of Lydia is unforgettable. She's crazy, he's crazy. Lots of violence and barbaric sex. After he's through with her, however, Bukowski just repeats the same kind of relationship and pattern with his women, most of whom have no self-esteem, and after 200 pages of this you're gonna feel exhausted and will want the story to end. At least Bukowski admits that his celebrity is the cause for all the attention he gets from the ladies--he wisely reiterates throughout the novel that his childhood lacked love and kindness. I think he hates women for ignoring him during his pockmarked high school years--read "Ham on Rye". It's scary to think that women like misogynists, maybe, because in the novel they just keep coming back to him after he's done some heinous things to them in the bedroom. Or perhaps being famous grants you access to stick it wherever the peep is calling? Bukowski is a brutal man, but at least he comes around in the end and realizes that women ARE human beings and not slabs of pleasure meat. Oddly enough, what's cool about "Women" is that Bukowski opens up about his feelings towards the whole writing process--what motivates him to write; how a writer should conduct himself with other writers; who his favorite writers are; the books that influenced him. If you're a fan, you'll like the book. If you're a first time reader--good luck.

Rating:
Summary: My first Bukowski - loved it
Review: I thought this book was dirty, shocking, and insightful. Other reviewers that didn't like this book because of it's lurid, sexist nature are unaware of the immaturity that lies within many men and women of this society, and it's nice to read something so bold and open (I'm a strong, independent woman and found this book extremely amusing).

I think complaints about its repetetive nature were made by people who missed a big point of the story. It is because of its repetetive nature, that the book does not glorify Chinaski's life of casual sex, drinking, gambling. The activities and stories that, in the beginning of the book seem somewhat exciting, repeated over and over, really show how sad and meaningless it all is. Chinaski is not proud of his behavior, but he does admit gaining enjoyment from certain moments - he knows he's a drunk who cannot find love, and may be too weak to change. Or maybe he doesn't care. Who are we to judge? As other reviewers have pointed out, he has been mostly honest with his women, and the women continue to choose him.

Are the critics so 'holier-than-thou' that they've never had fleeting 'Chinaski' thoughts or moments? If so, they are a minority among most human beings.

Rating:
Summary: It Really Made Me Laugh
Review:
Women by Charles Bukowski is definitely a book worth owning, if you don't mind the kind of book that is often a little vulgar, raw, and yes "real." The story revolves, of course, around Buk's relationships with women, and the accounts themselves are totally hilarious and side-splitting. It's also one of those rare accounts of a man "past his prime" taking a final stab at the game of romance. It starts out with an account of Chinaski admitting he's a "loser." Dig this: "I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years...the idea of having a relationship with a woman -- even on non-sexual terms -- was beyond my imagination." Right then, from page one, I was hooked. The book then proceeds to show his disastrous attempts at altering this situation -- and the results are just hilarious! And it's the humor that makes this novel work. Next to The Losers Club by Richard Perez, which is also about relationships and the humiliation of daily life, Women by Charles Bukowski is by far the most fun I've had reading this year! Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: God Who'd Wanna be This Obvious
Review: "Hey, look at me, I'm Charles Bukowksi! I am the sleaziest man alive!" I actually like the man's writing, but this book is simply terrible. If you consider this novel "telling it like it is," you are a pathetic old man. To quote the great Isaac Brock on Bukowski, "Yeah, I know he's a pretty good read, but, God who'd wanna be such an as...le?" With this book he moves past the good read part and entirely into the latter description. Vulgarity alone does not make good writing or interesting reading. This book leaves all the sublety and humanity out. Read the other parts of his Chinaski series; they're always interesting and many times great.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of Laughs, Fun -- and Truth!
Review: Wow, this book was truly enjoyable. I'd just come off reading The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, when someone suggested a similar book, Buk's Women. It was especially enjoyable for me since I'd previously also read the great Bukowski Biography by Howard Sounes called "Locked in the Arms of Crazy Life." That book actually provides photos of the real life gals that became the character in the novel. In the Buk biography, starting on page 111, the author goes into detail of Buk's meeting of Linda King, who is the Lydia character in the novel. It's thrilling to read about a man like Bukowski -- then in his mid-fifties -- who only then was having his first passionate/sexual love affair. In the novel, the colorful Lydia flatly states how she won't have anything to do with a man won't go down on her. Chinaski (Buk) confesses his ignorance and Lydia literally draws a map for him, sketching out an illustration of her private parts, including her "pearl." Some people might find all this excessive or vulgar but I found it touching because Chinaski earnestly wants to please her; there's a sad, doggy, lonesome quality about the Chinaski character in this book. And there's a lot of intimate and funny stuff like that in the book. Are the women all crazy? Yes, but so are the men, not the least of which is Chinaski. And Lydia is every bit a match for him! This makes for a lot of conflict and drama in the novel that I enjoyed. It all seemed strangely honest and real to me. I truly recommend it. Bukowski can be so refreshingly funny and down-to-earth, you can easily forgive his occasionally sloppiness as a writer; he's sometimes like a folk-artist making a wood carving using a machete. The work has a sort of broadness to it. Like one woman screaming: "I'M A WILD WOMAN OF THE MOUNTAINS! O WHERE O WHERE IS THE REAL MAN WITH THE COURAGE TO TAKE ME?" You'll laugh reading this; it also definitely has a slapstick/bawdy element to it. So purchase Women to own! Pick up the Howard Sounes bio for easy reference. Special thanks to the guy who recommended The Losers Club by Richard Perez, another non-mainstream book I also enjoyed. Read on!

Rating:
Summary: A Sh---y Book
Review: My 18-year-old son brought this book home and I took a peak. I asked him what he saw in it. "I've been reading good books this summer, so I thought I'd read a sh---y book." He couldn't have said it better. This is a study in depravity, endlessly repetitive and written in a sixth grader's prose. That this book is praised so universally on this site is a reflection of the sick society we live in. Try reading "Tuesdays with Morrie," a short, transparently clear book that celebrates what is best in human nature rather than what is worst. Isn't the point of life to make ourselves better persons? More sensitive, wiser, more loving? Bukowsky will take you in exactly the opposite direction. The difference between it and pornography is very slight.