Customer Reviews

Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook: Uncollected Stories and Essays, 1944-1990 (Uncollected Stories/Essays 1)

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This isn't for a beginner or a casual fan of Bukowski. If your like me though and have read everything you can by Bukowski and want more, than this is your next step. This book is a nice collection of Bukowski stories that for one reason or another haven't made mass circulation. Many of these stories are being reprented here for the first time since their appearnce in some long ago forgotten magazine. All the boozing, betting, and women you love from Bukowski are packed in along with some fascinating literary critisim (showing that their was more to Bukowski than the boozing, betting, and women). There are some lost gems in here. With that being said, it is also important to note that some of these works aren't Bukowski's best. But hell, a mediocre Bukowski story is still way above par than a good story from any other writer out there.

Charles Bukowski works the form like a tangible material. Like a talented carpenter, he crafts his short story, first looking at it from inside, checking it for truth, realism and message and then he writes it and when you read it, every word fits in like a well-set mortise joint, crafted well, true, real.
Amidst incessantly cheap, dumb, stupid and shallow slew of publications this recent short story compilation by Charles Bukowski shows that there is always a true direction in life. Always was. Always is, and when you want, you will find it and will keep on following it, without living like a dull fish swallowing dry crap, fashioned like an edible meal, thrown by the society in the human fish tank.

"I have created the eternal drunk image somewhere in my work," Bukowski laments in "Notes of a Dirty Old Man", "and there is a minor reality behind it. Yet, I feel that my work has said other things. But only the eternal drunk seems to come through."

In "Portions From a Wine-Stained Notebook", the most important contribution to Bukowski studies to date, the image of the eternal drunk may not be exactly laid to rest but a new blood-swollen, multi-dimensional creature arises from these pages, a sensitive, tortured, "vulnerable man of genius trapped in a small room with a typewriter", a fiery provocateur for social change, a profoundly serious producer and defender of poetry, a passionate spokesman for "the defeated but still hopeful" dwelling in the lower depths of America (though he would never claim to speak for anyone but himself), an intense lover of classical music and the possessed madmen who created it, and a keen-eyed, hard-bitten naturalist essaying the hardscrabble existence of a writer ("The life of a writer is unbearable ... starving writers live worse than skid row bums") and the harsh desperation of life on the margins of Los Angeles. Charles Bukowski believed that pride "has no right in things upright and mechanical", that primal feeling trumped intellect in any race of the body or mind, and that a thousand scarlet sunsets bleeding into the Pacific Ocean were no match for a woman's beauty.

But beauty, Bukowski instructs, "would not be beautiful without flaws."

I have been enjoying Bukowski's writing for decades. I expect to re-read most of his books over & over for the rest of me life. I expect to smoke Dunhills, toke the chronic, and rock-out to Pantera until the end, too.

I am Alexander T. Newport and I fancy high quality results. If you have an above-average intelligence and dropped out of high school, I will point you to the good stuff. We are brothers. We don't give a damn what the so-called experts, professionals and authorities have to say about ANYTHING. We believe only in ourselves and the overall goodness in all living beings. We believe in miracles.

Portions From A Wine-stained Notebook contains plenty of pages of classic Buk magic, pizazz, and madness to please any fan who has already consumed all of the books published whilst he was alive. It's like a post graduate, post Bukowski 101 kind of book. It's for those who already love his work. It's for those who already love HIM, biographically speaking.

The weakest writing in this book is his earliest stuff and that is usually the case for all writers. Thankfully there aren't many of those pieces and the rest are just good ol' Buk having fun with fiction and non fiction. Sometimes, when playing the critic, he opens up a seriously potent can of whoop-ass.

My favourite piece in the book is titled, In Defense of a Certain Type of Poetry, A Certain Type of Life, A Certain Type of Blood-Filled Creature Who Will Someday Die. You just know when he writes a title like that it's gonna be sparing no punches. The targets will be reduced to puddles of urine.

It's really uplifting and encouraging stuff when you get a hold of some fresh Bukowski. It's his voice on the page. He's right here with you. He's alive for as long as you are reading his words...

The dude was hella prolific. He went to the typewriter even when he wasn't feeling particularly in form or inspired---you can tell that by all those poems in those books published posthumously---most of them were out of the Zone and unwanted by John Martin whilst Buk was alive. They were dull little exercises, really. Like scratch paper, like doodling until an inspiration arrives. Even still, he churned out loads and loads of wonderful writing for many, many years. He had his privacy, his desk and typewriter, his alcohol and cigarettes and classical music on the radio, and he let 'er rip. Just wrote whatever the hell came to his mind and let the beast out of the cage. No pussyfootin' around. The rest of the world watched television whilst Bukowski wrote immortal lines.

This book is a lovely addition to my Bukowski collection. It is not as strong and intense as the books published whilst he was alive because it is but a hodgepodge collection spanning many years. Some of the pieces, the reviews in particular, have a sort of phoniness about them. They feel like he was holding back and doing so out of kindness. I don't think he admired anyone's writing more than his own, and with good reason. And yet, phoney reviews or not, it's all good grist for the biographical mill! It's nice to see another side to the guy.

I have a few gripes for the publisher:
Why provide a page of Sources?
Do you honestly think anyone actually gives a damn about the dates and where each piece was published first?
Well of course we do! So why the hell did you cram them all together into one giant paragraph? It's all one after the other on the same lines. It is very user-unfriendly. It's hard on the eyes, you robots. Why not be more considerate in future editions and present each source at one per line?
.
And as for the Table of Contents:
It would've been nicer had you listed each title with the year it was published.
You have no empathy for the reader.

And those blurbs!
The blurbs on the back cover are putrid. Honestly. Talk about too much enthusiasm. It's overkill.
The original Black Sparrow editions never had any blurbs on them.
Bukowski books don't need blurbs to sell copies.
Bukowski books don't need to be pitched to anyone.
His new readers come to his books via the Law of Attraction or personal word of mouth or a name-drop made by a hero or idol.

Having said all that, I will reiterate: I am glad to own this book and will read it again in the future.

The best thing about reading Bukowski is that one not only reads him, but FEELS him as well; every bottle of booze, every fruitless minute, every departing woman tramples across the psyche. In the new Bukowski collection, "Portions From a Wine-Stained Notebook," we are handed fragments that make up a good deal of the Bukowski cannon: from his first published short story, to selections from "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," to bits of literary and aesthetic criticism, this collection provides more insight to the events that shaped the, shall we say, "Bukowskian Philosophy." Many of the writings have never been collected or published before, so editor David Stephen Calonne has done us a terrific favor.
The seasoned Bukowski reader will get more of the long and drunken nights, tail-chasing, and nihilism we have all come to expect from his work (along with some odds and ends). I could also recommend this book as a starting point for people who wish to be thrust into Bukowski's world. Either way, several works in this book explain why Bukowski wrote the way he did and why he did, and both the novice and veteran will benefit from them.
Frankly, there is not one work in here that I like above them all. All are Bukowski, and all are good in their own ways. I can only recommend reading the book from beginning to end, unless a title seems to strike ones fancy; regardless, one can start where ever they like.
The publication of this book only attests to the immortality of Bukowski. Love him or hate him, he is here to stay.

Had already read the book, so knew what I was getting, and ordered 2 extra copies for friends. Got here quickly, in great condition and at a very good price. Will probably reread the book at least once a year for a while,and am looking to read more Bukowski as well. One of my friends sent me a DVD called "Born into This", a film about Bukowski, which I think is available on Amazon and also is very good.

Anything newly published by Hank comes close to reading rapture, especially something like this which contains his prose. The only reason this didn't get five stars is some of the stories are redundant and some were, well, just not...representative of Hank's better writing. Nonetheless, there were some laughs, some curses, some broken bottles, and the best tale was by far his recount of meeting his idol, John Fante.

This seems like it might be the last new book from buk for a while. And it's a fitting bit to hold over those seriously into his work. The essays especially stand out in this book as they show a side of Bukowski that's not really present or immediately visible in his other works. As another reviewer said this probably isn't the best place to start for those new to buk but old fans like me who've read damn near everything will find this a welcome departure from his novels and poetry collections. This can almost be seen as a slightly veiled how to on writing from one of the best authors of recent times. Definitely worth the price especially if you can get it used. I loved it and since each section is short and easy to digest its a relatively short read. Highly recommended!

Not every single story is a gem, but then again, it doesn't have to be. Worth the price.

I get a kick at the way Bukowski detractors love to groan and moan, belch and fart
at every opportunity...and this recent title will be just one more reason for them to
whine.

Fact is, Bukowski keeps being read, books continue to sell and sell and sell...and the
jealous pi**ants can't stand it.

Is Bukowski the greatest writer of all time? Probably not. Although, as far as I'm concerned,
as a writer of short stories, he is second to none. Ham On Rye ain't bad either; Factotum ain't bad either.
Then, of course, you've got the poetry. About a third of it is pure gold--and I doubt anyone else comes close.
Oh, they might try, but don't even rate.

Anyway, enough about that.

By the way, cover design is excellent, a work of art. Whoever designed this cover is one talented individual.
Cover designers seem to hardly ever get adequate credit--and I thought I'd mention it.

Thank you, City Lights.

Bukowski is one of my favorite writers ... this book is a terrific compilation of short readings.