Women: A Novel by Charles Bukowski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Women: A Novel
Book Review: Prose is direct like pavement
Summary: 4 Stars
This was actually my first Bukowski book I ever read. I had a girlfriend who had started getting into him right after he died... She liked him because he was so bitter. She later broke up with me using a lot of the same reasoning she had for likeing Bukowski! Nevermind that, though...
Buk only wrote about ten or so different stories in most people's minds. What I find most facinating is that he rarely gets boring (there's some horse track stories that I could never finish). The synopsis of "Women" may make the book sound monotonous, but Bukowski's talent is delivering his life in a direct and interesting way.
Book Review: Raw and uncouth like Bukowski himself -FANTASTIC!
Summary: 5 Stars
As of late I've been reading a lot of Bukowski. The man just grows on you. This novel is perhaps my favorite of the six that he wrote during his lifetime. I like it because of the life that Buk painted for himself. Not one of rich and royal hue by any means but a rather sordid lifestyle that always seemed to follow him and sure enough was a lifestyle that he approved and glorified. Bukowski's language is the best part of the book (for me atleast)I can really identify with every aspect of his love life - a few on and off relationships and countless one-night stands. Mr. Bukowski is a gifted writer as he is a poet. I highly recommend this novel and all of his books for that matter to anyone that has or has had the slightest interest in wanting to know more how dysfunctional, shallow, corrupt and visceral our society has become, this book is for you. Although this is a non-fictional account of the many women in his life, it is also a great piece of writing. I read this book from cover to cover in one sitting, I couldn't put it down and I don't think you will either if you get the chance to read it. Charles Bukowski -the Poet Laureate of Skid Row - as he was called was nontheless one of America's greatest writers and literary icons of the 20th century. Go to the bookstore and pick up this book and a few of his others - some of his most famous books that I recommend you read are: Post Office (his first novel) Factotum, Ham on Rye, Hollywood, Women (of course, you can't miss this one -classic Bukowski). Love is a Dog from Hell, The Captain is out to Lunch and The Sailors have taken over the Ship and Pulp (the last novel he wrote shortly before his demise) to name a few. Go and read Bukowski, you'll be glad you did. I can't recommend him enough. One of my favorite writers indeed.Book Review: Read it. Don't let your wife read it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Don't start with this Buck Book, but add it to your list. Don't let your wife read it - in 2007 she won't get it. But if you appreciate the raunchier side of Hank's life - this is it.Book Review: Repetitive
Summary: 3 Stars
"Women" is one scene going around and around. Henry does a reading, meets a babe, gets drunk, beds the babe, gets drunk,gets a letter from a babe, meets the babe, beds the babe, gets drunk, does another reading....etc.....
Most of the women in this book are sleazy.
I liked "Ham on Rye" and "Postoffice" much better.
Book Review: SAME OLE' BUKOWSKI
Summary: 3 Stars
I've concluded that most people who discovered Charles Bukowski in their teenage years eventually grow out of the old crank. The few readers who don't go the other way and come to idolize Bukowski even more. When I was 17 or 18, I went on a Bukowski binge, reading "Post Office," "South of No North" and "Factotum" in about a week. This was around the same time that the movie "Barfly" came out. (The picture stars Mickey Rourke in what remains his best performance as Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski.) Bukowski then wrote a novel about the moviemaking experience in "Hollywood," which I also read a few years after the initial Bukowski binge. (For the record, I haven't been exposed to any of Bukowski's poetry.) Well, now twenty years have passed, and I decided to revisit a writer who played a role in my formative years and picked up "Women," which, like many of Bukowski's novels features his stand-in, Chinaski, the former postal worker turned poet and novelist. I can't say I was disappointed by "Women," because I knew what to expect going in. That said, the semi-autobiographical work just didn't connect with me on the same level as the books that I remember from decades ago. This could be for a number of reasons. First, Bukowski works better in short doses. "Post Office" was a breezy, hilarious read. "Women" comes in at almost 300 pages, and quickly turns repetitive. It's basically the same story told 20 times: Chinaski meets a much younger woman, beds her, they argue, break up, get back together, break up again, with lots of drinking and gambling in between. Second, Bukowski/Chinaski was a better read when he was a struggling writer. In "Women," Chinaski has achieved a small amount of fame, so the reader has to put up with endless poetry readings in the narrative. Third, and perhaps most important of all, Bukowski's ranting and raving might strike a chord with younger readers, but to more mature readers, he just comes across as a really mean old man. In short, Bukowski is the same, but I've changed.