Bukowski wrote six novels during his life time and the
obvious question to readers unfamiliar with his work is where to begin? Having read all six of his babies in the last
year, I rate the mothers as follows:
#6 PULP (1994)
This novel was not published until shortly after Bukowski’s
death and is intended to be an over-the-top satire on hard-boiled crime fiction. It is told
from the point of view of Nick Belane, a L.A. private detective who is hired by
Lady Death to find the real Celine, one of Buk’s early influences. Belane (a
pun on Mickey Spillane) shares many of Bukowski’s vices, including heavy
drinking, race track betting and a weakness for bimbos in stilettos. The plot is totally preposterous and includes
aliens who hide in dead bodies to
eventually take the shape of big breasted or long dicked humans. There are many memorable lines in the novel
but alongside these you may find some of the worst puns found in 20th
century literature. The novel is shockingly bad and written deliberately so. The
book’s title and the epigram should be a warning to you: ‘Dedicated to bad
writing.’
#5 HOLLYWOOD (1989)
This novel provides an insider’s account into the
intricacies, the successes and failures of making a Hollywood film. It is told
from Chinaski’s point of view and fictionalizes Bukowski’s experiences in the
making of the film ‘Barfly’ which he wrote the script for and in which he appeared
in a cameo role at a bar stool. The storyline overall is flat and provides few
surprises. The people Chinaski and his wife Sarah meet are quirky and numerous
but are mere caricatures and you never really give a stuff about them.
#4 POST OFFICE (1971)
This is Bukowski’s first novel and is a highly biographical
account of his life when he worked for the post office in L.A. for eleven
years, throughout most of the 1960s. The novel has been highly influential
because of its working class exploits but a close reading of the text reveals its
many limitations. No doubt the novel is enormously humorous and entertaining,
but perhaps over-rated in the Buk canon. The novel’s focus on the
inner-workings of the post office may be amusing to some but the strength of
its subject matter lies in Chinaski’s rejection of mainstream values and
aspirations.
#3 WOMEN (1978)
This novel is Bukowski’s most sexually explicit but you may
soon tire of his alter-ego Chinaski’s many conquests of females two or three
decades younger than him. The book probably has the best collection of mind-stomping
quotes in all of the novels. His views on women, sex, drinking, in particular,
are hilarious but also thought provoking.
In Charles Bukowski's Living On Luck (Selected Letters 1960s-1970s Volume 2) he writes to John Martin, his publisher at Black Sparrow Press, 'Women is my proudest and best work.'
In Charles Bukowski's Living On Luck (Selected Letters 1960s-1970s Volume 2) he writes to John Martin, his publisher at Black Sparrow Press, 'Women is my proudest and best work.'
See my full review: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/book-review-charles-bukowski-women-1978.html
#2 HAM ON RYE (1982)
This is probably Bukowski’s most auto-biographical novel. It
traces his early childhood to his departure from school and to his pursuit of heavy
drinking and working class jobs which help shape his identity as a writer. The
novel dramatises many of Bukowski’s anecdotes about his early life in L.A.,
which readers, familiar with his life, will recall- the vicious beatings by his
father, his terrible affliction with acne vulgaris, his visits to the public
library & his days at LA City College and his early struggles on skid row. The
novel is written with amazing clarity and is told without restraint.
See my full review: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/book-review-charles-bukowski-ham-on-rye.html
#1 FACTOTUM (1975)
This is easily Bukowski’s best novel. It fictionally traces
his hard won development as a writer as he journeys through skid row America in
the 1940s and 1950s. The language is raw and uncompromising but always highly
credible.
The anecdotes he tells are quirky and hilarious. Ironically,
it is the uncontrollable sessions of drinking, fucking and gambling which help
to structure Bukowski's stories and which have helped to place the food on his
posthumous table.
View my full review here: http://georgedanderson.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/book-review-charles-bukowski-factotum.html
