Customer Reviews

The Roominghouse Madrigals

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're a Buk fan you'll want to check out his earlier 'more lyrical' poetry; basically not as raw and hard-hitting as his work in the Seventies and beyond, a bit more fancy word-work involved, but still interesting. If you're not a fan, and prefer all that pretentious abstract imagist poetry, then this is probably the only book by the man that you might like...

So many of my pages are dog eared from marking all the poems that "spoke" to me. I was continually sharing the poems with anyone around me. I think that's what poetry should do. He inspires me to write more and be more observant of the little things. I like the rough edge the poems have. They seem so raw and written with such passion. Check him out if you have never read Bukowski - give it a try.

if you're a bukowski fan, then this a must read--some poems hit you hard--others not so hard but thats the risk with hk and most often well worth it

I love this book. Poems like "layover" and "old man dead in a room" -- and dozens more like them -- offer vintage Buk from the tough old days. Along with The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills, Burning in Water Drowning in Flame and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck, this volume is absolute must reading for any Bukowski fan.

I thought that this collection was one of Bukowski's best. I have a number of books from this publisher and think they are classy, functional, and even though paperback feel like you are really holding something.

The author observes that these poems are more "lyrical" than his later ones. Indeed, the language is more abstract and deals more with things in general and less directly with the East Hollywood life with which Bukowski is so firmly identified. I find the work enjoyable but less so than the later work because it reminds me of other, more academic poets and doesn't reinforce my concept of the author's uniqueness as based on the later work, which I read first. Maybe I shouldn't have read the later stuff first, although had I read the first stuff first, I might not have bothered to read the later stuff. On its own merits, this is a good book, and Bukowski fans need to read it if only to round out their view of its author's development.

The book is said to contain poems from 1946 to 1966, yet the end note states that Bukowski started writing poetry at age 35, which would be 1955. Exactly why the time span goes back to 1946 is thus not clear to me.

As hackneyed as this may sound, this early collection of Bukowski's poetry is undoubtedly some of his most astounding. As several other people have mentioned this book is strangely different from his later works. I've read a vast amount from this writer, and from my perspective this is unarguably some of his finest--a must have for all.

Like drinking, so it is w/ Bukowski's poetry: it is all a gamble. Some nights the liquor or atmosphere is right and you get good and drunk and feel fine; other nites you get ill and nauseous and spend the early morn puking on the old rug. Some of his poems are excellent, they help one deal w/ this life here; others, well, maybe they should have been used as rolling papers. Still, like drinking, it is time well-spent. We must have endurance and courage to keep on drinking and keep on reading. My hand shakes as I finish...

Charles Bukowski (1920 -- 1994) is best known as the writer of novels such as "Ham On Rye" and "Women", which are based upon the author's life and feature a character named Henry Chinaski, and for movies such as "Barfly" and "Factotum" based upon Bukowski's novels and stories. But Bukowski saw himself primarily as a poet. He wrote prolifically for years, publishing frequently in journals and little magazines. His extensive writing belies, somewhat, Bukowski's public image. It shows a person interested in considerably more that alcohol, horseracing, and sex. Bukowski devoted a great deal of time and energy to becoming a writer.

The collection "Roominghouse Madrigals" was published by Black Sparrow Press in 1988, following the success of the movie "Barfly." Black Sparrow had already published several collections of Bukowski's poetry, but "Roominghous Madrigals" is a collection of earlier material, writen between 1946 and 1966. In fact, the collection dates overwhelmingly from the latter ten years, as Bukowski virtually had stopped writing during the mid 1940s to mid 1950s. In the forward to the collection, Bukowski writes that he and some editorial assistants attempted to gather together some of the poems from Bukowski's earliest efforts for publication in the book. He describes the poems as "more lyrical" than his subsequent efforts and that he retains a "certain fondness" for them because of the life of cheap roominghouses, menial jobs, lack of money, and effort at writing that they recalled to the him.

As with much of Bukowski's poetry, the poems of "Roominghouse Madrigals" are short, broken-lined, unrhymed and unmetered. They generally speak directly to the author's immediate experiences. Whitman is a source for Bukowski's poetry (Emily Dickinson may be as well, given the personal character of the poems) as is the 20th Century poet Robinson Jeffers. The book is long for a collection of poetry (256 pages) and the poems are put together without apparent sequence and with no attempt to correlate the poem with the year in which it was writtin or to its initial publication, if any.

I found "Roominghouse Madrigals" a mixed collection with some poems working, others not. The book is dark and pessimistic, as a whole, with many poems exploring themes of death and suicide, violence and hard living, loneliness, and a broad sense of alienation. The book differs from some of Bukowski's later work in its use of elaborate metaphor, which is frequently highly striking, vivid, and surrealistic. In addition, this collection frequently explores themes at a more abstract level than does most of Bukowski's later poetry. As with most of Bukowski's work, there is a sense of redemption in this book, as the poet tries to create a meaningful life in the crassness or his surroundings through the practice of capturing his experiences in art.

Some of the poems in the collection that I found effective include "It's not who Lived Here", "Poem for my 43d Birthday", "The Japanese Wife", "The Loser", "All I know", "Old Man Dead in a Room", "Counsel", "Goldfish", "Sad-Eyed Mules of Men" "The Gypsies near Del Mar", and "Rose, Rose". Overall, this collection of early, scattered works does not represent the best of Bukowski's poetry.

Readers might want to check the pagination carefully before purchasing "The Roominghouse Madrigals." In my copy, pages 133 -- 164 are included twice while pages 165--196 are missing.

Robin Friedman

Those who find Bukowski's novels a little thin in substance and diversity may want to turn to these early poems, which are indicative of the late writer's considerable talent. Bukowksi's poetry is base, unadorned, and funny. He identifies strongly with the common man, perhaps more authentically than the beats or other subterranean movements of the same period. This collection is a strong representation of his early skill as a craftsman; his voice his genuinely present throughout. Stand out poem is `Genius of the Crowd.'