<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: my personal Bukowski favorite
Review: Collections of poetry tend to be uneven--especially when they're as enormous as Bukowski's work (as packaged by Black Sparrow).Betting on the muse is uneven also, but it is surely worth the money spent. There are enough poems in here ranging from 'superb' to 'good enough' to make this worth buying. The poem "Drink" is hilarious. Buk takes us into a New Orleans bar and excellently describes what he sees. The dark humor in it keeps me coming back to it. "Until it hurts" is a poem about writer. It's a statement to any true writer. Betting on the Muse has the usual fare: getting drunk, hanging at the horsetrack, woman troubles... and it never gets tiresome; but it also has Buk's words of wisdom about life and the process & meaning of writing. I'd recommend this book above any of Buk's other collections. I give 5 stars because as far as collections go it's about as consistent, from page to page, as you could ever hope for
Rating:
Summary: A woman who likes Bukowski?!
Review: Curious about Buk? Start here. This book is a ticket to a life time addiction to bukowski. One of the best books ever to be written upon this earth, I cannot recommend it enough. Pick up a cold beer and open this book and your life may never be the same.
Rating:
Summary: saved my soul
Review: furious mind is the greatest band ever come see them live in philly every monday at jojo's rhawn and roosvelt blvd.
Rating: 
Summary: don't bet on this one
Review: I have been reading Bukowski for 25 years now--and I can honestly say this is not very good here at all. Maybe 5 to 10 percent has merit and is worth reading--and the rest? Babble, gibberish, flat. Mind you, this is not easy for a Buk fan to admit--but the way it is. I bought it cheap so I don't really regret getting it. But if you're looking for great writing, great poetry you won't find it here.
If you're looking for excellent Buk prose try Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (broken down into two volumes and titled something else, from City Lights) Factotum, South of No North--even Hollywood. Living On Luck worked for me as well, so did Screams From the Balcony (letter collections, etc.) As far as his poetry? As someone else stated: the early or middle stuff. Septuagenerian Stew (stories and poems) isn't very good either. Could be one reason why Martin decided to sell the store. The problem with Buk's later stuff is just this, I believe, he liked to say that writing was too easy for him, that there was nothing to it--and that what he produced was all good stuff. Well, as any writer knows, if it's that easy and you think everything you write is terrific, it very often means just the opposite.
I believe his publisher continued to publish the Buk's stuff because he was THE BUK, and we understand that. My conclusion regarding Bukowski's work is just this: a third of his output is truly great and original, a third is fair--and the rest is blatantly bad, just too awaful to have any meaning or worth reading. And yet, having said that, as terrible as it may sound to the diehard Buk fan, I maintain it is a great compliment to the man, because the third that is good will forever keep him up there at the very top of the best writers ever. So, please don't despair because not everything he wrote isn't gold--it can't be. Nobody is that good; nobody can be. Buk was human and had his limitations.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I have to confess i'm not a Bukowski connoiseur. I only recently discovered him so i'm not fortunate enough to place this book in any formatted context. All i can say, from the point of view of someone who hasn't read much Bukowski, i thought this was brilliant. His writing style is so incisive and simple, i love it. Filled with paradox and irony. Its worth getting. I found myself ticking off the page corners when i would come across a great poem or interesting short story. Excellent stuff
Rating:
Summary: good horse betting poems
Review: stories from the track, poetry tops here
Rating: 
Summary: Bukowski was prolific
Review: While the quality of some of Bukowski's later books might slip a notch or two they're still several notches higher than just about any other writer in the world.
<< 1 >>
| 
