Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame
by Charles Bukowski
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'Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame' is poetry full of gambling, drinking and women. Charles Bukowski writes realistically about the seedy underbelly of life.Tags
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I don't really go for this cultivating-the-image-of-the-bohemian-poet/bastard stuff. Yeah, I get it, no one loves you because you're an asshole; can the next poem be about something different please? It's well written for what it is, though, and a fast read.
I feel it's only fair to preface this review by admitting that I am not a huge fan of beat poetry. I read this collection of Charles Bukowski poems because one of my fellow librarians is a huge fan of Bukowski and I was curious to see what it was all about. And while I will not go to any great lengths to read more of his work, I did find myself intrigued by and enjoying, in a way, his creative stream of conscientiousness seemingly autobiographical style. The second part, Crucifix in a Deathhand, I found almost too weird, but hey, they were written 1963 -1965, so that's par for the course, right? And ironically my favorite poem happens to be from this section, go figure, man in the son on page 85. Bukowski has a way of pointing out the show more absurdities of life and highlighting what he sees as important and uplifting despite the relative degradation evident in his own existence. The rest of the book I felt was mostly depressing, derelict, degenerate, and destitute, though with a few rays of light shining in here and there, yet I was fascinated by his take on life and his very different lifestyle. His poems kept reminding me of the movie Barfly - I also had the same strange reaction to the movie, both disgusted and drawn to the strange, crazy life portrayed - which is fitting considering he wrote the screenplay based on his own life! show less
This was my first Bukowski book, given to me by Mom some 30+ years ago with the hope that I would start reading poetry. It did. It also opened my world to his crazy world. I tried to emulate him. I'm sober now but I got a lot unpublished poetry and stories that I share with family, friends and AA meetings.
my favorite collection of bukowski poems by far
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Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany, on August 16, 1920. He came to the United States with his parents when he was three years old and spent his early years in poverty. As a young man he was a transient, doing odd jobs. He lived most of his live in boarding houses in the Los Angeles area. He attended Los Angeles City College briefly. show more He worked for the United States Postal Service for about ten years. Bukowski was at home with street people and his work contains a brutal realism and graphic imagery. He began publishing short stories in the mid-1940s. Starting with Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail in 1959, he produced poetry collections almost once a year. His following had grown by the time his collection of poetry about down-and-outers titled It Catches My Heart in Its Hands appeared in 1963. His short story collections include Dirty Old Man and Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness. His novels, with an autobiographical character called Henry Chinaski, include Post Office and Factotum. Bukowski wrote the screenplay for the 1987 motion picture Barfly. He later wrote about the filming of Barfly in his novel, Hollywood. Bukowski died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Members
- 860
- Popularity
- 31,480
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.01)
- Languages
- English, Farsi/Persian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 10
