In the late 1960s, Charles Bukowski wrote a weekly column for the underground newspaper Open City in Los Angeles, and this book collects those pieces. They are short, rough sketches of drunken nights, horse races, sexual misadventures, poverty and run-ins with the police, narrated in the plain first person of Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski. Some are fiction, some are memoir, and many are both. The tone is brash and unfiltered, aimed at shocking polite readers, with flashes of tenderness, loneliness and humor mixed in.
Bukowski's fans will find the voice in its raw form, and curious readers can treat it as a sample of his underground-press style. Be aware that the material is explicit and not meant for everyone.
Balanced in tone; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1969
- Language
- EN
