Hollywood by Charles Bukowski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hollywood
Book Review: Only the drunk and mad survive
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a tour de force. It is perhaps one of the most acessible of Bukowski's novels suitable for first time Bukowski readers; it is a loose account of Bukowski's writing of the movie script of Barfly an semi-autobiographical movie set in L.A. and starring Mickey Rourke as a dangerously insane bohemian bent on drinking, sex and mad with the desire to express his art while still living a blue collar existence in Los Angeles. BTW, be careful when reading this book your family and housemates will think you're having way too much fun with it. This book will make you laugh out loud. Warning. Don't give this book to anyone with no sense of humor or a distaste for live and or drinking.
Cheers, Nick at Springwater Books
Book Review: Pulls No Punches
Summary: 4 Stars
One of Bukowski's bucket full of virtues is that he tells the truth, and he pulls no punches here in talking about the phenomenon known as "Hollywood". I did find some of the person to person interaction to be thin, but that could be that human to human interaction in Hollywood tends to be thin. Bukowski lets it be known that he questioned his motives in going Hollywood and becoming something that he used to look down on only a short time before - for this alone I respect him immensely as not a lot of them who do this care to make a public introspection afterwards. Bukowski was a real man. Read this bookBook Review: Quite A Romp
Summary: 4 Stars
BARFLY is what first brought Buk into my life, so this thinly veiled fictional account of its making was a joy to read. It's a bit goofy in spots (some of the names Buk came up with to represent the real stars he encountered are ridiculous), but classic Buk nonetheless. Why isn't Buk taught in college English classes yet?Book Review: Some True Grit Behind the Vapid Glitz
Summary: 4 Stars
Although far from Bukowski's best, this is a revealing send-up of what happens when brutal honesty (Buk) interacts with the California entertainment industry. A roman a clef about the making of the independent film Barfly based on Bukowski's life and some of his earlier stories,the book shows Bukowski finally gaining some recognition and acceptance near the end of his career. The movie stars Faye Dunnaway and Hollywood badboy Mickey Rourke who does a good job slurring and walking about with hemorrhoids. Yet it appears from the text that Bukowski would have preferred Sean Penn, who was originally cast in the part, to play him in the film--Penn had more heart. As always with Bukowski, there are real emotions, honest appraisals, and bone-cutting prose--not compromise, pandering, mediocrity, and unfortunately often successful attempts by MSG-dazed writers to pluck the heart strings and collect the cash.In all his books, Bukowski's presence is perhaps the most palpable of any author behind his fictional protagonist. This is, one might argue (and Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe did, in the Paradox of the Actor), the diametric opposite of actors, whose abilities lie in taking on the personae of others, and consequently losing their own identity in the process. The story is that when Bukowski, although much older, first encountered Arnold Schwazenegger in Hollywood, he had to be restrained from attempting to fight him just for being such an obvious phony. Far from his most testosterone-crazed, drunken bull self here,he does not seduce but does manage as if for old time's sake to pull onto his lap the pretty co-star during a wine-drenched film party. Even and especially when confronted with (and making some money off of) L.A.s billion-dollar dream machine, Bukowski (as alter ego Henry Chinaski) preserves his uncompromising heart and unwavering eye in the face of the ugly truth. A welcome tonic to Hollywood's treacle.Book Review: TINSELTOWN FLAKES
Summary: 5 Stars
Buk was right. His take on screwie Hollywood. Funny and true. He was smart to stay clear of Hollywood's phonies and neurotics (with the exception of writing Barfly for the big screen). See the flick by the way, doubt you'll be disappointed--unless you've got a bit too much starch in your white collar. Buk wrote about blue collar down-and-outers like himself, and did it with a uniqueness and originality all his own.