Customer Reviews

Bukowski and the Beats: A Commentary on the Beat Generation

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

 

 

I enjoyed this book a lot. I think Jonathan Kirsch is perfectly right when he writes in The Los Angeles Times Book Review of Sunday, June 2: «Bukowski and the Beats» is full of affection and admiration for Bukowski, but Duval brings a sharp edge and a smart take to his work, which is composed of biography, literary criticism and cultural history in equal measure». As an echo to Kerouac's lyrical motto «the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk», Bukowski states: «Thank the gods that the first 50 years of my life were spent with the Blue Collars and the truly mad, the truly beaten.» However, Bukowski was a beneficiary of the Beats in more than one sense, as Duval points out. «Bukowski and the Beats» is also great fun, for instance when it shows Bukowski joining a 1974 Beat tour that featured Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder. The book also contains photos I had never seen, and one of the best interview with Bukowski that I have ever read.

Bukowski wasn't a Beat. He didn't like the Beats, either. In this book, the author scrounges up every reference he can find by Bukowski about Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Cassady. All of these references are *negative*.

So why publish a book about Bukowski and the Beats? Well, the author has this long interview with Bukowski and his wife. He needs a book idea as an excuse to publish the interview. He knows a lot about the Beats, so he spends the first three-quarters of the book trying to find a connection. There are a few connections --- the period in which Bukowski and Beats wrote, their unapologetic drug use, their wild sex lives, and trying to get their non-conformist writing published --- but Bukowski didn't like them and wasn't one of them.

So you have a book in two parts. The first is a colorful history of the Beat writers. The second is the interview. The history is okay and the interview is boring. Bukowski doesn't knock you out with his barroom wisdom in this one.

The best thing about the book is the large collection of black-and-white photographs. Seriously. If you are a big Bukowski fan, this book will disappoint you.

The word "and" can join (stars and stripes) or it can differentiate (apples and oranges). I'm glad that the "and" of this title is used mostly in the second sense--so much so that the book might better be called BUKOWSKI VS. THE BEATS. Which is as it should be, because although Bukowski once read with and showed a grudging respect for Allen Ginsberg (once calling him "the most awakening force in American poetry since Walt W."), he never aligned himself with the Beat school of poetics or politics. For the most part, he mocked and derided them.

But there are connections to be drawn between the outsider Bukowski and the clique-ish Beats. Lawrence Ferlignhetti published Bukowski. Bukowski partied with and respected Neal Cassady (Kerouac's good buddy and inspiration for ON THE ROAD). Burroughs and Bukowski once crossed paths. ...OK, well, that's about it.

Duval does a good job of capturing this ambivalence by synthesizing all the various mentions of the Beats in Bukowski's published work and correspondence, consolidating that scattered material into a tidy chronology which underscores Bukowski's independence from that group.

(On a personal note, I kind of outgrew the Beats and so only skimmed the chapters devoted solely to them. As with many college students, the Beats were a revelation and turned me on to the possibilities of poetry--so much so that I went on to get an MFA in Poetry under the mentorship of Allen Ginsberg--but most of what they wrote now strikes me as too earnest, precious, or self-consciously capital-P Poetic, if not just plain dated.)

The long interview with Bukowski which caps this book tips my review in its favor. The interviewer is fairly inept (he tires easily, runs out of questions (!), can't take a joke and is rude for not bringing a bottle of wine), but Bukowski doesn't need much prompting to deliver lines as cogent as those found in his writing: "The human heart, as of course we all know, is essentially good. But between governments, false gods, striving for survival, the heart gets mixed up with the head and the feet and the elbows and the intestine. And the peace and the madness. And the heart gets strangled out a bit. It's a good organ and there is complete hope for humanity if it ever gets a little bit straight. It's all there, it's totally there, there is total hope of goodness forever. But we got lost somewhere. How we can ever straighten that out, I don't know."

In short, this was worth borrowing from the library but I don't feel the need to own it.

I found this book to be a decent overview of the main Beat characters and an insightful look into the writings of Bukowski. I dig Buk's stuff and am really into the Beats, so I enjoyed reading about Buk's various meetings with different Beat figures and his comments over the years on their works. I also enjoyed the deeper look into Bukowski, especially the interview between the author and the dirty old man, which makes the book a must read in itself. Good read for getting a little deeper into Buk and gaining a better understanding of where he's coming from.

I was very drawn to this book, as I have been studying the beats intensively for the past few months and also see Bukowski as being, as the author may have put it, even more beat than the beats. And the author did have some interesting and meaty things to say. For this reason I give the book 3 stars rather than 2. My suggestion is to borrow this book from the library unless you want it mostly for the photographs within, which tend to be on the scale of nothing less than excellent.

I will not say it was not worth it to me to purchase this book. Poor grammar I can handle but poor translations can drive me batty. Most readers would probably not be bothered by the problems in translation as much as I was, but my fear is that those who cannot spot the obvious translational errors may also be misled into believing fiction to be fact.
It this glaring kind of problem in the writing had happened only once or maybe twice and otherwise it was all good then I would not let it bother me so much, but in addition to the problematical translation I also found myths being perpetuated, though obviously out of naivete.

Duval states in this book that Jack Kerouac wrote his most famous book, "On the Road," in three weeks. This shows me that Duval as only skimmed the top of beat literature, for I have learned in more than a couple of books that this was not at all true; rather, it was at best a bit of marketing genius on the part of Kerouac who did apparently pretend at least for a short time to have written the entire book in three weeks on the famous "scroll." Yes, he did type the scroll in three weeks. It was a near-final if not final draft of a book he had essentially begun nearly four years earlier, though most of the book was written in about two years.

In addition, when a book repeats such a glaring myth, in 2002 when there is little excuse not to know this, it makes me feel a bit insecure about how much I can believe of what else the author has to say.

All that said, I found the book well worth reading -- though not what I could call enjoyable. There were tidbits of information which are probably true that I was glad to learn about. Though I knew a lot more than the author of this book about Kerouac's scroll, I am far from being a Road Scholar, and I have many more books to read. Only then will I learn if the book had any other glaring errors.

Lastly, I felt that the author waxed somewhat nauseatingly effusive and pseudo-poetic in praising Bukowski. Hey, I love Bukowski too, but not with white sugar frosting on top. Oh, and please, hold the gummy bears.

It just goes to show, you can't judge a book by its cover, or it's title for that matter. This book is just awful. Awful. Bukowski wasn't a Beat, he didn't hang with the Beats and he had nothing in common with the Beats. This book struggles through it's 255 "pages" attempting to find any connection, regardless how tenuous, linking Buk to the Beats. It is like saying "Lawrence Welk and the Beatles". They only thing they have in common is that they lived at the same time and made music: Buk lived at the same time as the Beats and they both wrote. There are two separate stories going on here: one about the life of Bukowski and the other is a history of the Beat movement and there is no coherent thought connecting the two. The book is heavily referenced and quoted with a complete lack of original thought. It is so flimsy that the author had to include a 61 page interview with Bukowski and a 61 page notes section just to get the book to a reasonable page length. The interview is also terrible, after reading it one has to ask 'Is Ham on Rye the only book by Buk that Duval ever read?' The actual discussion of Bukowski and the Beats is limited to a weak 118 pages. The whole thing reads like a bad high school term paper. Save your time and your money, skip this one. Go watch grass grow, it would be more interesting.

"Do Try" is a play on what is embossed upon Buk's tombstone and I am glad that our society continues to succeed in remembering him. I think Duval wrote a serviceable book here, one which reveals a good amount about Charles Bukowski. The text is a "tweener" as they say in football. It certainly is not a biography, but informs us about the Beat Generation to a modest extent as well; particularly Neal Cassady, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. Some of its information was new to me. I had never heard of Hal Norse, whom Buk called "The Prince of Poetry," before I opened these pages. The coverage of the poetry scene was illuminating in its own right. I agree with one of the other reviewers about Duval's final section which contains his interview with Bukowski. It was not very interesting or original. Lastly though, some of the plates reproduced on these pages--selected photos and the art of R. Crumb--vastly enhanced its narrative. I've flipped through it several times since the first reading just to gaze at all the photographic memorabilia. Well done in my opinion.

Jean françois Duval has written a very pleasant book that all the buk's fans all around the world must buy.Why? Because of the originality of the approach(it's the first book about this relation between buk and the most powerful exiting litterary movement of the 20s. And most of all because of the original interview at the end:Buk talks about life and death, writing and success.. and drinking of course, with a lot of bottles surrounding him !!.It's never boring,always exiting .Buk is a master at word.This book is also a very good introduction for people who have never read bukowski.Pics are beautiful andespecially these of linda ( the buk's wife) in her bed.Buk is a major author and a fascinating man.Read him!

Sun Dog Press did a terrific job! It is obvious that lots of love went into putting this book together, from the exceptional cover photos (the one of Buk is one of the best ever!), design as well as what's inside. Credit also goes, of course, to the author: Jean-Francois Duval. Written in French and translated--although it does not read like a tranlation; it is that well done. Smooth and truly professional.
While Buk was alive he liked to poke fun at The Beats (he liked to put down Kerouac's writing, as well as Burrough's--well, the truth is On The road is a well-written novel and a modern classic, and the same could be said of Burrough's Junkie. So here, within these pages, you get to know something about The Beats--if you're new to all this. Worth buying for your library, even though the Buk interview also appears in the Daniel Weizman tome Drinking With Bukowski. Thanks to all involved!

Lastly, I found out recently that John Martin (Buk's publisher)
sold Black Sparrow Press...am still reeling from the shock...but then I thought what a terrific book idea, to have Martin write a book ( or have someone else do it for him) all about Black Sparrow, how it got started, how he met Bukowski and made it happen. That would complete the entire picture. People like myself would be interested in reading a book of this type. John Martin, to me at least, has always appeared to be this mysterious figure in the background, behind Buk's success...and I, for one, would love to know how Martin and his wife made it all happen: the early struggles, and finally the acclaim, success; all of it.

Bukowski and The Beats gets five stars! You bet!

Jan Greenland, book reviewer and art critic., July 15, 2002, 5 out of 5 stars
Brilliant testimony
This volume is a must for all Bukowski fans and fanatics. The author is a rare blend of warmth, genius, and intellect (top of the line). If you love Charles Bukowski and his work - BUKOWSKI AND THE BEATS will definitely delight, not disappoint. The title could just as well be BUKOWSKI VS. THE BEATS, with this book metaphoring a regular chess game: Mr. Bukowski's side being two pieces left (the King and Queen) against the Beat's side having all pieces left except their Queen. Who wins? Bukowski by a landslide. By far the best of the four or five interview works re Bukowski. Why? Great wit, the author's keen eye for his hero's idiosyncracies and uncanny observations re our literary culture's highs and lows during the last century. Bukowski's range is so vast and so beautifully ALLOWED free rein in this book - because the author does not, as so many of the other biographers have, GET IN FRONT OF BUKOWSKI. Bukowski's wife (25 years younger) is allowed a leading role, and supports her husband with a real, honest, full, and complete love (romantic and otherwise). Sun Dog Press continues to bring alive deserving studies of perhaps the 20th Century's strongest and most astute critic of what must be called the debacle called humanity. Entertaining on every level, in this reviewer's opinion.

Also recommended: THE GOOD EARTH by Pearl Buck. PAN by Knut Hamsun. BUKOWSKI: THE MESSIAH IS HE by Cairo Monk