Mockingbird Wish Me Luck [Hardcover]

Charles Bukowski (Author), 1 b/w photo (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Black Sparrow Press (1972)
• ASIN: B000KVPSVU
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,210,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for fifty years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was twenty-four, and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp (1994).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Bukowski's Best, April 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (Paperback)

"Mockingbird Wish Me Luck" is Bukowski at the height of his powers. This title contains my favorite Bukwoski poem of all time, "The Mockingbird." This is an essential volume for all Bukowski lovers, and for any lover of modern poetry

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bukowski...poet, January 30, 2003

By 

Matthew P. Arsenault (SW Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (Paperback)

Charles Bukowski had a rare gift. He could make desperation beautiful. He could make hate and pain beautiful. Bukowski had a magic way of twisting emotions into poems of unimaginable shapes. Each poetic flash serving as a portal into one man's interpretation of life. And that, I think, impresses me most about Bukowski. There is no pretension. His work... simply is. Mocking Bird came out in 1979 and some readers commented that B. was going soft. What they fail to realize is that people evolve. Bukowski was still Bukowski, but perhaps his poet eyes began to see some different shades of gray. And we certainly can't fault him for that. .

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bukowski's Own Words, August 30, 2001

By 

Mark Begley "Letterpressed.com" (Fresno, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (Paperback)

I'm not sure what the reviewer from "southern california" was smoking when he wrote his review, but he couldn't be more wrong. It's a well-known fact that Martin never (I stress NEVER) got away with changing Buk's writing. The Buk himself said enough in regards to the problems with WOMEN, where Martin did in fact try to spice things up, but Buk caught EVERY SINGLE CHANGE, and demanded they be changed back, thus producing the only Buk/BSP book to be reprinted due to errors. Why then, would anyone think Martin got away with this with Buk's poetry? As far as literary attacks go, Buk fueled these on his own, and was notorious for burning numerous bridges (i.e the Webbs, the aforementioned Wantling, Steve Richmond, Marvin Malone, etc.). A good poem is a good poem regardless of who gets attacked. Most of these people retorted on their own, and understood the nature of the attack. I'm quite suspicious of this reviewer and am positive it is one of those poets who was villified in this collection, namely in the poem: "300 poems." "he was rich and I was poor / and the sea rolled in / and I turned the / white / pages." You know who you are. Regardless of any of that, this is one of Bukowski's finest literary achievements, hail the Buk!