Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems [Paperback]

Charles Bukowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

from "neither Shakespeare nor Mickey Spillane"

young young young, only wanting the Word,
going mad in the streets and in the bars,
brutal fights, broken glass, crazy women
screaming in
your cheap room,
you a familiar guest at the drunk tank, North
Avenue 21, Lincoln Heights

sifting through the madness for the Word, the
line
the way,
hoping for a check from somewhere,
dreaming of a letter from a great editor:
"Chinaski, you don't know how long we've been waiting for you!"

no chance at all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When HarperCollins and Ecco Press acquired part of the Black Sparrow imprint early this year, one big prize was the sprawling, long-popular oeuvre of Charles Bukowski (Barfly; Ham on Rye; Love Is a Dog from Hell). Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems, Bukowski's 10th posthumous volume (with several more planned), collects yet more verse about the troubled, garrulous poet's traveling, gambling, thinking, aging, working, not working, romancing, drinking, self-mythologizing and even eating ("I opened a can of roastbeef hash/ and some pickled beets") as he fought through his blue-collar, beer-hall L.A.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Mother o' mercy, is this the end of Buk, nearly nine years after his death? Well, no, for his new publisher--Black Sparrow Press proprietor John Martin having retired and closed that long-lived, successful, and important small literary house--promises four best-of collections, their contents handpicked by Buk himself. But yes, apparently, it is the end in terms of all-new collections. And a fine valedictory this is, one of the most purely enjoyable entries in the Bukowski canon. The poems in it are all as autobiographical as their not-Bukowski "I" referent, Buk's perpetual stand-in--drinkin', screwin', horse-playin', typin' Henry Chinaski-- allows. As usual, they are chock-full of gripes, curses, petty rebellions, cocked snooks, long-suffering mutterings, Pyrrhic victories, and the other expressions of malcontent that were Buk's stock-in-trade for some 40 years. Perhaps he was a rhetorician, a ranter, more than a real poet, but for sure he was a humorist, one of the greatest in American literature, in prose as well as verse. If you aren't amused by him, what good are you? Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060568232
• ISBN-13: 978-0060568238
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #124,941 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

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars please be more careful with the man, May 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way: new poems (Hardcover)

To make it short: this is not Bukowski's best work. And it doesn't have to be. He published over 40 books when he was still alive and all that is released now after his death are the Left-overs. Some are stronger, some are weaker, but one thing is clear: with collections like this one you might scare off future readers because what can be found in this collection is less than average in quality for Bukowski. If you want to go ahead and discover Bukowski (and I strongly recommend that), buy one of his earlier books of poetry like: Burning in water, drowning in flame OR Dangling in the Tournefortia. This is where you find some of the best poems ever written in English. This new book is o.k., but at least wait until it comes out in Paperback...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still doing his thing, better than all the others, March 15, 2003

By 

Mois Benarroch - See all my reviews

This review is from: sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way: new poems (Hardcover)

But you should. This posthumous poetry book starts by a killer poem "so you want to be a writer": "If it doesnt come bursting out of you/ in spite of everything/ don't do it./ unless it comes unasked out of your/ heart and your mind and your mouth/ don't do it./ if you have to sit for hours..." and so on, a poem for all those writes who want to "do" it, then just don't.

This is Bukowski's 6th poetry book published since his death, and since ECCO announces that it will be publishing more voulmes of uncollected poems, it seems probable that Bukowski's posthumous books of poetry will be greater than those he published in his life. The poems in this book, as well as in the last 6 books, are not really fillers, or second rate poems, they were not published because Bukowski and his publisher, were busy publishing other , more commercial or urgent books. As with all his books since "War all the time" published in 1984 (or even before that one) this book is a novel written in verse. The basic Buk's book is built around his alter ego, Chinasky, adn each book is the (autho) biography of this Chinasky. He writes to poets, writes about his father, mother, women, literary desert, and literary success late in life, working the factories and other underpaid jobs, horses, betting, death, the pleasure of being rich, and the problems of being famous. Each book includes one or more poems on these subjects and in a way they all tell the same story of Chinasky from different angles.

I have just finished the first reading of this book, and I have really enjoyed it, not everything is perfect but Buk is still the best american poet ever, even when he is not at his best. If you don't have to read it, don't, but I think you should...

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what you'd expect, January 23, 2003

By 

N. B. Carver "Writer, Reader, Pumpkin Eater." (Los Angeles, CA => Reston, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: sifting through the madness for the Word, the line, the way: new poems (Hardcover)

Not for the timid.

Not for those who read the reviews of others.

Get it.

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