Customer Reviews

Against the American Dream: Essays on Charles Bukowski

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The logic is clear. The examples are numerous. The only such work of its kind to my knowledge. There is plenty of academic jargon, but the ideas are recognizable. Only the complete Bukowski nut will not find something new worth considering. Readers will find the sheer volume of quotes useful, but some literary background helps, there is a chapter on 'Metonymy'. Probably too specialized for those unfamiliar with the author's work, unless they happen to be preoccupied with the American Labor Movement.

the book arrived even before estimated,
and despite it was sold as used, it's in
really perfect conditions. couldn't ask
for more. eleonora.

Harrison's collection of essays attempt to bend Bukowski and his work over to a leftist perspective. Looking a little closely at Bukowski, his writings (poetry, prose, stories) tend to shift in an apolitical pattern. There is no leftist consistency with his work, though I'll give three stars for Harrison's effort and my own leftist sympathies.

-- Brad Evans --

Interesting effort attempts to place Buk in the left-wing anarchist tradition.

If any author didn't need an academic introduction, Bukowski was it. Bukowski's works are carefree, honest and simple snatches of everyday life. This book tries to dissect and categorize the Bukster and this is the book's biggest fault. Bukowski was into immediate sensations and reactions. This book is a dry-as-dust and 'reflective' leftist tirade that has nothing of the spontaneity, guts and life affirming vision that Bukowski is all about. If you enjoy dry parchment and cliched leftist ramblings, then this book is for you.

Those of us who enjoy and appreciate Buk usually do so with a grain of salt. This book turns him into some sort of class representative which he most assuredly was not. Buk was a bum, plain and simple. He wrote well and simply, but he was still a bum. Anything else is the work of an overstimulated and grasping academic sensibility that has no place in the Buk universe. I would recommend Buk's biography by Sounes as an antidote to this sleep-inducing drivel.

Despite the efforts of liberals,and the left
to claim bukowski as thier own,the simple fact is..he wasnt.
Buk was apolitical.

In FACT,he made several comment's on
how the left was so consumed with thier
own self importance,they *lose* credibility.

You want proof?
Of course you do.

Read "The captain is out to lunch....'
It's right there in plain buk english.

That of course doesn't mean buk didn't
understand the poor,and the suffering,
because he was one of them.

It just means he was aware of the elite left's ability
to pimp these kind of issues for thier own agendas.

If you read his books,
you will see his opinion varied from issue to issue.

The "author" of this "book",is out to lunch,buk would have vomited on it,and wasted no time in throwing her confused carcass out the door.

I'm sure if she really knew bukowski as well as she claims,she is already aware of it...and probably loves the thought!