Customer Reviews

Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been reading Bukowski for 25 years now--and I can honestly say this is not very good here at all. Maybe 5 to 10 percent has merit and is worth reading--and the rest? Babble, gibberish, flat. Mind you, this is not easy for a Buk fan to admit--but the way it is. I bought it cheap so I don't really regret getting it. But if you're looking for great writing, great poetry you won't find it here.
If you're looking for excellent Buk prose try Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (broken down into two volumes and titled something else, from City Lights) Factotum, South of No North--even Hollywood. Living On Luck worked for me as well, so did Screams From the Balcony (letter collections, etc.) As far as his poetry? As someone else stated: the early or middle stuff. Septuagenerian Stew (stories and poems) isn't very good either. Could be one reason why Martin decided to sell the store.

The problem with Buk's later stuff is just this, I believe, he liked to say that writing was too easy for him, that there was nothing to it--and that what he produced was all good stuff. Well, as any writer knows, if it's that easy and you think everything you write is terrific, it very often means just the opposite.
I believe his publisher continued to publish the Buk's stuff because he was THE BUK, and we understand that.

My conclusion regarding Bukowski's work is just this: a third of his output is truly great and original, a third is fair--and the rest is blatantly bad, just too awaful to have any meaning or worth reading. And yet, having said that, as terrible as it may sound to the diehard Buk fan, I maintain it is a great compliment to the man, because the third that is good will forever keep him up there at the very top of the best writers ever. So, please don't despair because not everything he wrote isn't gold--it can't be. Nobody is that good; nobody can be. Buk was human and had his limitations.

Charles Bukowski, Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories (Black Sparrow, 1996)

The general rule of thumb is that Bukowki's posthumously-published works are of lesser quality than those published during his lifetime. So far, I have come across two exceptions to this rule. One is The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, a wonderful book of journal-like observations and such. The second, in parts anyway, is Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories.

Much of the poetry in the book seems as if it was written in the fifties and sixties, during the peak years of Buk's quality output (though there are some of the later "I couldn't care less what it's about" poems scattered throughout). Much of it may well have been. Some, however, bears timestamps in the work that show them as having been written early in the nineties; makes me wonder what Buk might have come up with had he lived a few more years.

The final selection of poems (I divided the book up in my head while reading into sections, each bounded with short stories) is a series of meditations on death. Not Buk's normal death writing, which always had some fierce spark of hope in it, but writing that made it clear he knew he was facing his own demise. With the exception of the amazing "Last Call," which is roughly halfway through the book, this final selection is perhaps Buk's best work since Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame back in 1973. The process of "observe and write with as little translation is possible" is abandoned, and the work shows that either Buk revised these poems, or turned them over in his head a lot more before putting them down on paper. It shows.

The short stories (and one short nonfiction sketch about publishing his first chapbook in 1960 that is far more optimistic) are a pretty fair reminder that despite Buk being known mostly for his poetry, he was always a strong writer of short stories-- arguably, his short stories are stronger than his poetry. Reading them is like reading Spillane, if Spillane had spent most of his life drunk in a flophouse and didn't care about the mystery aspect of what he wrote. These are quick, easily slices of life, biting with satire and rife with well-drawn characters.

This is good stuff, and the first of Buk's books I've read in quite a while I would unhesitatingly recommend to those few people who have not yet encountered the writing of Charles Bukowski. ****

I have to confess i'm not a Bukowski connoiseur. I only recently discovered him so i'm not fortunate enough to place this book in any formatted context. All i can say, from the point of view of someone who hasn't read much Bukowski, i thought this was brilliant. His writing style is so incisive and simple, i love it. Filled with paradox and irony. Its worth getting. I found myself ticking off the page corners when i would come across a great poem or interesting short story. Excellent stuff

Collections of poetry tend to be uneven--especially when they're as enormous as Bukowski's work (as packaged by Black Sparrow).

Betting on the muse is uneven also, but it is surely worth the money spent. There are enough poems in here ranging from 'superb' to 'good enough' to make this worth buying.

The poem "Drink" is hilarious. Buk takes us into a New Orleans bar and excellently describes what he sees. The dark humor in it keeps me coming back to it.

"Until it hurts" is a poem about writer. It's a statement to any true writer.

Betting on the Muse has the usual fare: getting drunk, hanging at the horsetrack, woman troubles... and it never gets tiresome; but it also has Buk's words of wisdom about life and the process & meaning of writing.

I'd recommend this book above any of Buk's other collections.

I give 5 stars because as far as collections go it's about as consistent, from page to page, as you could ever hope for

Simply put, if you are a Bukowski fan, you MUST read this. If you aren't a Bukowski fan, this is a very good (and gradual) introduction which may help you understand his earlier work. Not that his writing needs any explaining, but for some reason it is terribly misunderstood and unapreciated. I think "Betting on the Muse" will help readers understand the virtue of Bukowski's literature. Two very noteworthy things in this book are the poem "Let it enfold you" and "An empire of coins". This book is everything that Bukowski stood for: Good but minimalistic literature for the masses, with an pseudo existential twist (although Bukowski himself may not admit to that). Like another reader said "Bukowski loves life and hates life, but he lives life to the fullest".

How could this be? I like Bach, classical poetry, high-brow literature...and Bukowski! I will admit his attitudes about women make me cringe, but this guy can really tell the truth. He knows people inside and out and that is why I like his work. Since 9.11.01 many people have asked if irony is dead. When you read Bukowski you understand that irony is probably the most essential human trait. Irony lives on in our daily lives and in the works of Charles Bukowski. This is a great book.

I first encountered Bukowski's poetry years ago, when my mother gave me one of his many volumes. He was a novelty, an amusing diversion from my principal interests, namely, Greek, Latin, and classic English poets. I never bothered then--or bother now, for that matter--with contemporary poetry since so much of it is opaque, pretentious crap by silly poetasters for the benefit of one another, rather than the world at large.

A poem must tell a story -- a good tale that a child can appreciate. (Odysseus in the cave of the Cyclops, for example.) It has to speak directly, in language that is clear. It has to tell the truth. Where his contemporaries have failed miserably in following these simple rules, Bukowski succeeded, and admirably so. In reading him, I sometimes feel that I've encountered a modern Martial, Catullus, or Juvenal.

Here, in an excellent volume of posthumously published poems and prose, are the old familiar scenes: the racetrack, prostitutes, drinking, (unnamed) rival poets, boxing, bar scenes, alley brawls, etc. The usual topoi, however, are exploited more masterfully than ever before. The thematic threads appear more closely and poignantly linked than in his other collections. The tone is mellower, too.

There are no heroes in our society. There really aren't any poets, either. There is Bukowski, however, and he has many good things to say in this collection

I found this book at my college's library and I really like it. I'm sure there might be better Bukowski books, but this is my first and I found it really interesting to read. I don't finish many books, but this one was easy too. So check out anything by him, he will make you laugh, think and keep you company on a boring night.

Gritty and cynical, yet strangely hopeful and innocent, Betting On the Muse is quite possibly one of the most powerful books I have ever read.

Charles Bukowski holds nothing back, which is the beauty of his punch-to-the-gut stories and poems. He knew what he wanted to say and he said it--with no frills, no window dressing. Bukowski loved life and hated life, but he always lived it to the fullest; whether seducing hotel maids with cheap whiskey or losing all his money at the racetrack, every day was an adventure for him. And I feel forunate--after reading Betting on the Muse--that he has shared these adventures with us