Customer Reviews

Absence of the Hero (Uncollected Stories/Essays 2)

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Trade size soft cover edition. Two pages of acknowledgments. Fifteen page introduction,including notes.272 pages of writings. Also there's a source page,which is helpful in placing the various writings,in chronological order.

This is the second volume of uncollected writings published by City Lights Books. Like the first,this volume has a number of writings that were in limited circulation many years ago,along with unpublished pieces. The themes are typical Bukowski-love/depraved love,drinking,women,gambling,literature/authors,and Bukowski's sometimes wry observations of people,events,or himself (the piece"80 Airplanes Don't Put You in the Clear" is the first place that Bukowski refers to the narrator as "Hank"). And there are several other pieces that use his literary alter-ego,using variations of his given name throughout the book.

These pieces begin in the mid 1940's and conclude in early 1992. From early magazine fiction in the 40's ("Love,Love,Love"),to the 50's decade ("The Rapist's Story"),through the turbulent 60's ("Peace Baby Is Hard To Sell"),the 70's ("Notes of a Dirty Old Man" series)into the 80's ("The Ladies Man of East Hollywood"),and finally the 90's ("Playing and Being the Poet"),these works are prime Bukowski. The majority of pieces are from the 70's,with three pieces from the 40's,and only one piece from the 90's.

This book is a good addition for long time readers of Bukowski,because it fills in areas not to well known to most readers. For someone just beginning to read Bukowski's work,this would be okay,but his short stories (there are a number of good collections,any of which would be a good introduction),or poems (any of the many volumes,for the themes are similar in many of his poems) would perhaps be a better starting point,and then progress into his novels ("Post Office" perhaps),for a good foundation to his work. But this book makes for interesting,if not sometimes amusing,and startling reading-which is what makes Charles Bukowski unique among authors-praise that he would no doubt laugh at.

It's been 16 years since the death of Charles Bukowski. I've lost count (and am too lazy to look it up) of just how many posthumous books this makes, but I bought this one with more skepticism than any other (why no Hardcover edition, for instance?). After all, the well has to run dry eventually... right? Well not yet, thankfully and this collection is superior in many ways.

Having read Bukowski books for 20+ years now, but never having the budget to collect all the $25 dollar magazines where some of this material can be found, I'm grateful that City Lights is finally making this material available. Some of the stories here are great and the Notes of a Dirty Old Man excerpts are classic as always. I have a new favorite story (I Just Write Poetry So I Can Go To Bed With Girls) from 1971 and unbelievably never collected until now. It's the classic Buk Scenario where he beds a girl after a poetry reading and spends the night. The kicker and the best part of the story involves her children (and you'll just have to buy the book and read it for yourself), It's a perfect summation of Bukowski's personality.

There's plenty more, including his first published short stories which are quite different than his later material. In some ways I'm grateful he did not achieve early success. It's clear he would have been a different writer, but it's impossible to say whether he would have been a better one. Perhaps early success would have spoiled him and the raw, biographical material that hs is known for would have never been written?

It's impossible to know, but what is possible is to proclaim that the well has not run dry and Bukowski fans should gobble this up and encourage City Lights to keep them coming. As to old fans versus new, I think I would recommend this as a good place to start. It's a wide variety of Bukowski's favorite targets and a general sense of the man really comes through. Of course long time fans will get it in other ways, but Bukowski is a "love him or hate him writer". You know it instantly whether your first Buk is "Women" or "Notes of a Dirty Old Man". He speaks to your soul or not. Absence of the Hero certainly spoke to mine.

My boyfriend is a huge Bukowski fan. We just saw his exhibit at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA recently and I was impressed on how much information my boyfriend knew about this guy. I took a chance on getting this book for him as a gift and it turned out that he had never heard of it. My boyfriend owns so many books and has read practically everything out there about Bukowski. I'm very happy he got surprised. (:

Absence of the Hero: Uncollected Stories and Essays, Volume 2 1946-1992 is a compendium of miscellaneous works by prolific and popular author Charles Bukowski. Many of the essays and stories within were previously uncollected, or even unpublished; they range from "Absence of the Hero", a countercultural examination of contentions during the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s; chuckle-inducing installments of Bukowski's newspaper column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man"; Bukowski's own "Manifesto"; his evaluations of the writings of colleagues such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, LeRoi Jones, and more; as well as a medley of wry, suspenseful, or surprising short tales. An absolute must for fans of Charles Bukowski's work, Absence of the Hero is also a welcome addition to public and college library literary studies shelves.