Notes of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski

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Whether he is drinking while writing his stories and poetry, or showing up to work and meetings already drunk, every story incorporates his vigorous drinking habits. i understand its a collection of essays he wrote for an underground California magazine in the 1970s (i think). His life would go downhill fast until his writing career became slightly successful and then go downhill again. Like South of No North, this book has its ups and downs, although I like Notes of a Dirty Old Man slightly better for several reasons.

This novel is mainly dealing with gabling, drinking and whoring which Bukowski is really good at, but what I find him to be even better at is his way with words and that does not show its true colours in this book. So, I guess I chose a somewhat extravagant way to say that if an alien's first touch with humanity was through this book, they'd totally kill themselves without thinking. I find it extremely difficult to rate this read, it is not your traditional novel, I cannot even recommend it, simply because I don’t believe a lot of people will understand what it was meant to serve.And not even because it was nasty or creepy (because let's face it, despite panic attacks and crap, I made it through Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho and if I can get through that, I think I can get through any book). Beginning in 1967, Bukowski wrote the column "Notes of A Dirty Old Man" for the underground newspaper Open City. As with anything written by Bukowski, I wouldn't recommend it to you if you're easily offended or overtly PC. Notes of a Dirty Old Man” is a collection of a column with the same title that Bukowski was writing for an underground newspaper, Open City, starting in 1967. His vivid, uncompromising depiction of the underworld of Los Angeles has achieved cult status as the ultimate in realist writing.

It is a more personal and serious way for readers and fans to get to know more about the author and how he lived. He also worked in a dog biscuit factory, a slaughterhouse, a cake and cookie factory, and he hung posters in New York City subways. But one line from chapter 12 haunts me the most, until chapter 42 and even after I finished the book.

It is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. The whores, the drinking binges, the alley fights and the insanity of the man of the streets is a life lived at its most direct and extreme. What I enjoyed the most about this book was the ending and not just because I could finally put the book down for good, but because of its optimism. I read most of his books in my late teens early 20ies and bought this for a friend's 30th birthday,i could not resist the temptation and re read it before wrapping it away.

I was expecting something witty and intelligent, what I got was violent, crude, misogynistic and highly unpleasant, in the beginning at least.This is a collection of articles that Bukowski wrote in his column for OPEN CITY over about a 11-month period. And after all, an intellectual takes something simple and makes it complex, while an artist takes something complex and makes it simple. I broke programming, (honestly it never worked too well on me), but I forgot to amend my overlooking of Bukowski. Notes of a Dirty Old Man has all the stickiness of ill mannered sex, sordid situations, crass thoughts, and broken down poetry, but it does feel good to read it, like taking hard liquor that burns the throat, once it hits the belly it loosens you up.

there are other things beside the mind: there are insects and palm trees and pepper shakers, and I’ll have a pepper-shaker in my cave, so laugh. Just wondering if someone else could provide me with an alternative perspective and perhaps make me appreciate it more.See him as he walks through a park absorbing images and smells, pausing every once in a while to take a closer look at whatever catches his attention. There are some really, really interesting and great short stories in this book and there are some really weird, messed-up ones which leave you saying or thinking WTF?