[.ca] Run with the Hunted: Charles Bukowski Reader, a (ISBN 0060924586)

Unforgetable reading experience:
I am not going to go over the contents of the book, or much about Charles Bukowski, because if you are considering this book you must know something about the man and his work. I will just give you my impression of this collection of work. No collection can ever really be complete, there are always new things to add, new commentary, newly discovered works, transcripts of records and unpublished letters, but this book does an excellent job in its attempt. To me Charles Bukowski will always be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, because of the sheer brutality and honesty his work emanates. It is funny, sad, sadistic, cruel, scathing, enlightening and thought provoking. Everything I like to read. This is poetry for people who are disgusted by verse of flowers, trees and Greek mythology. This is RAW human emotion and experience smeared out onto paper. It is not perfect, and it is not trying to be. It doesn't always work, but there in lies the subtle beauty of Bukowski's efforts. the guts to try. The attempts at honesty, clearly blocked by his unwillingness to divulge everything, and his cynicism of man. This collection is shocking in its beauty, and inspiring by its simplicity. Enjoy.

Simply Amazing:
I am not going to go over the contents of the book, or much about Charles Bukowski, because if you are considering this book you must know something about the man and his work. I will just give you my impression of this collection of work. No collection can ever really be complete, there are always new things to add, new commentary, newly discovered works, transcripts of records and unpublished letters, but this book does an excellent job in its attempt. To me Charles Bukowski will always be one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, because of the sheer brutality and honesty his work emanates. It is funny, sad, sadistic, cruel, scathing, enlightening and thought provoking. Everything I like to read. This is poetry for people who are disgusted by verse of flowers, trees and Greek mythology. This is RAW human emotion and experience smeared out onto paper. It is not perfect, and it is not trying to be. It doesn't always work, but there in lies the subtle beauty of Bukowski's efforts. the guts to try. The attempts at honesty, clearly blocked by his unwillingness to divulge everything, and his cynicism of man. This collection is shocking in its beauty, and inspiring by its simplicity. Enjoy.

For Bukowski addicts!:
This recording is a MUST for all those, like myself, who regard Bukowski as the one true voice of the fringe-dwelling dispossesed. People focus on his hard-drinking, his 'bum-like' persona, but what makes him remarkable is how his fiction and poetry reflects REALITY: the 'failure' and humiliation of being an artist (and essentially voiceless) in America. I listened to this recording with friends -- and we all agreed that it captures the man. Also recommended: ... Run With the Hunted, Post Office, Ham on Rye, Factotum, Women by Buk, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Bukowski, laughing until the end:
Shortly before his death, Bukowski was the subject of an anthology. It is a good anthology, not a great one, but a good one, and Bukowski seemed to think so as well. He notes during the reading of one the selections that they "Put some pretty good stuff in here" which, for Bukowski, is a whale of a compliment. It took me a long time to realize it, but Bukowski meant for his works to be funny, tragically funny perhaps, but funny nonetheless. Hearing Buk read these well known passages from his poetry and prose is a pleasure that is hard for me to communicate. He was a decent man.

Bitter, amazing realism:
A friend gave me a beat-up copy of this book last year and said I would like it. After reading one of the brutal stories of Charles' childhood (the one where he and his friends nearly hang a boy to death), I knew that I had discovered something. Charles Bukowski has since become my favorite writer, and this is the best intro one can have to this great man's work. I have been impressed (and occasionally amazed) at every piece of work Charles has ever written, from his memorable, deep poetry (that is completely free of pretension) or his poignant stories that reveal just as much of me as they do of him.