Just a pushing out of the word, any word, anythin Every story in this collection wants to make you drink yourself silly, run away from home or quit your job.
Just a pushing out of the word, any word, anything Goodreads deleted my old review. I wrote the above from memory. View all 3 comments. DNF on page They focus on an alcoholic main character, either returning from prison or doing something that will inevitably send him back to prison.
The character makes rape jokes, he is sexist and violent. He is depicted well in the sense that I despised him. View all 6 comments. Dec 11, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: 20th-century , short-stories , literature , fiction , german-american , poetry. Contents: A. Dec 01, Indra Mangule rated it it was amazing.
I simply love Bukowski. He belonged to a world I dont quite understand and he disliked people on such a high level - it confuses me. He describes a universe, where all things are wrong and where meaning of going on seems as dubious as the claim that one can come out of this life still being sane.
And yet, there are too many familiarities in what Bukowski says. I can sympathise to what he is saying or rather, what he seems to be feeling. Though the source of his impressions is different from mine, I simply love Bukowski.
Though the source of his impressions is different from mine, I think, in many ways, it leads us to the same destination.
Or such is the feeling Bukowski leaves his reader with anyway. And the speech, the pauses, the choice of words. All these things just so happen to fall into the right places so that they can speak directly to the reader, so that the reader would be finally able to understand what is wrong with this world and that, really, none of us will leave from here alive. Better kick back with a beer or two. Classic Bukowski! This was one of those rare books that made me laugh out loud, with my heart; and yet behind these funny moments a grim reality was lurking underneath.
The first time I saw Bukowski's photo, for a moment I thought he was the prolific Greek poet Yannis Ritsos and then I realised he was not. But beside the beard and the long wavy hair and their prolific writing careers they don't seem to share anything else. Ritsos is more lyrical more benign in his writing. Bukowski is more straightforward, with an This was one of those rare books that made me laugh out loud, with my heart; and yet behind these funny moments a grim reality was lurking underneath.
Bukowski is more straightforward, with an in-yer-face rawness. I first learnt spring more about Bukowski as a poet and writer through a few documentaries and videos I saw of him on YouTube and from reading about him online. Two and a half years later I stumble upon this book of short stories at a thrift shop and I said It's about time I read something by him I realised that this is some classic Bukowski by just reading the info on the back cover stating that the tales of this volume were originally collected together with more stories in a single volume entitled Erections, Ejaculations , Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness Thus, I dived in At the beginning I was a bit annoyed by his characters' attitude towards women but as the stories became more and more autobiographical I started enjoying them more.
Bukowski isn't hiding behind his words, he isn't using beautifying descriptions for things that can't be said, he isn't afraid to say what he feels.
He is honest, filthy, misanthropic, has an acid pen and caustic humour, criticises everything from American life to Anna Karenina. He is Charles Bukowski. So, I won't say more about this book but I will leave you with a random extract that illustrates pretty well what I said about his writing: Bukowski hates Santa Claus. Bukowski makes deformed figures out of typewriter erasers. View 2 comments.
Feb 25, Henry Martin rated it really liked it Shelves: permanent-collection. Bukowski — the man, the myth, the legend. Tales of Ordinary Madness is a collection of 34 short stories, some fictional, some less so, and some downright out of his own, unique life. Unlike his other, pseudo-autobiographical works, or his other short story collections, this one was harder to read than most. Not because of the subject matter — after 25 years I know what to expect from him — but Bukowski — the man, the myth, the legend.
Not because of the subject matter — after 25 years I know what to expect from him — but because of the frequent lack of proper punctuation, capitalization, and discard for text readability.
In essence, many of these stories appear as how they would have been written prior to a proper edit. In this collection, Bukowski delivers his usual subject matters in his usual style. The master of the lowlife short story form.
And for that, I am grateful. By contemporary standards, Bukowski would be a misogynist, a racist, a tramp, a drunk, and a generally unappealing person.
However, the same standards would throw many other great writers under the bus, so to speak. And Bukowski was, undoubtedly, a great writer. Sure, he was a drunk, and probably not a very nice person. Nevertheless, Bukowski dealt in raw emotions, raw settings, and he did not really give a flying f k about what I, or anybody else think of him.
He wrote because he had to those nagging voices would not stop , and he wrote in an utmost honest way. And that, I can appreciate. There were many other great writers, but none came even close when it came to honest, raw emotion — Kerouac was too polished, Miller too philosophical, and Hemingway. If something smells like shit, he writes that. If he is too drunk to get an erection, he writes that.
If he manages to get laid, he writes that. And if he finds himself in jail on yet another drunk charge, he writes that, too. He is able to observe the world, make fun of it, and laugh at himself at the same time. He drank to escape his inner demons, to escape the world. He gave up on the world, and reemerged honest in a way many other writers could not. Reading his works never fails to inspire me to create, which is perhaps the paradox in all of this.
Jul 16, Ryan rated it it was amazing Shelves: classics. I was looking for something new to me in the early 90's and some dweeb in a Brentano's recommended this to me because Bukowski has died months before. I hate discovering something great just after the author has died. I also hate people saying how great some author or artist was after they die, but they never had much to say while the author was still alive. Anyway, this is one of his two greatest novels.
View 1 comment. May 16, Mareeva rated it liked it Shelves: not-bad-but-not-my-cup-of-tea , dark , wtf-did-i-just-read , titles-i-want-to-get-tattooed , not-romance , classics.
Feb 21, Craig Stone rated it it was amazing. I lost this book when I was about 50 pages from the end. I think I might have left it in the gym - which is probably some sort of Bukowskian sin. I'll read those last pages one day, but I knew from half way in that this was a five star book.
I love Bukowski. I love his tales of ordinary madness. Though, of course, the madness isn't ordinary because Bukowski wasn't like most people.
He drinks his way through the book, offending the world around him, offending himself Some people don't like Bukowski, but part of his beauty is he doesn't want you to like him. He doesn't care about the reader.
He wrote because without writing he might have simply been a monster. But his words made him a genius. Tales of his own life and doings are as wild and weird as the very stories he writes. In a sense, Bukowski was a legend in his time. Every day, our lives are peppered with a little bit of madness, things that push us over the edge and away from our sanity. Take Robert. He knows those eyes are watching him. What eyes? The ones that are everywhere, lurking in every corner, outside every window.
Then there's David, who one day had the irresistible urge to walk out into the middle of traffic. Not the easiest of films to watch but a really decent attempt at portraying Bukowski on film and containing some great scenes and very fine performances. Ben Gazzara, who probably is too good looking but nevertheless most convincing in the lead role is excellent, Ornella Muti is simply wonderful and probably too good looking as well!
With such a difficult subject matter, Ferreri has done a tremendous job. Review by Paul Duane. Ornella Muti is extraordinarily beautiful however. They are the real people of this world, and I was proud to be in their company. Pure trash and overly prententious story of a poet that spends his time in self-fullfiling misery between bottles of wine and and fucking anything that moves.
Along comes Ornella Muti to save the movie but one of the nicest asses in the world does not make up for more than 1 star Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Where to watch. Director Marco Ferreri. Jacqueline Ferreri.
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