Customer Reviews

Visceral Bukowski: Inside the Sniper Landscape of L.A. Writers

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All I could do was be disappointed and I was. Ben Pleasants has a reputation for being a widely published journalist; maybe that's the problem? His Visceral Bukowski is more of an odd collection of unconnected articles than anything else. It is as if Pleasants has raked the obscure to try and pull up something worth telling, but all he could find was tabloid filler. For this reader, Pleasants' Visceral Bukowski is just another one of "them" - that, for whatever reason, was written to fuel the myth. The more I read of these things the more I become convinced that the only one to truly get below the myth and bring us an honest look at Bukowski was Cherkovski. As for the Visceral Bukowski, even the most avid Bukowski fan will fine this one a stretch.

Ben Pleasants has long been a important person in the L.A. writing scene. In addition to being a literary journalist, he is also a poet and playwright of some note. He also was a long-time friend of Charles Bukowski, which, combined with his skills as a writer, would seem to make him extremely qualified to take on a book such as this. Qualifications aside, what he has turned out is a very strange product indeed. Mixing tales of Bukowski's life, examinations of his writing, and stories of other writers Bukowski knew (including first and foremost Ben Pleasants himself), Pleasants creates a disjointed tapestry that can be fascinating at times and equally unsatisfying at others. While sections such as the ones that examine topics like Bukowski's fascination with Nazis are compelling, those that delve into his writing seem to miss the mark. Though the subtitle of this books shows that Pleasants' is not just writing about Bukowski but trying to place him in the larger "landscape" of the Los Angeles literary world, many of these chapters too seem to meander about, moving far away from Bukowski without ever pulling the story back together. Overall, though, this book has enough interesting new material to make it worthwhile for the hardcore Bukowski fan. Also, I'm a bit hamstringed here by the Amazon rating system. I would like to give this book three-and-half stars but am forced to choose between three and four. So give this book another half star beyond my rating.

I want to state that I know and have worked with Ben Pleasants professionally. I do not think this has affected my review, but I feel I should be open about these facts.

This lively biography by Ben Pleasants deftly captures the engaging yet off putting braggadocio of Charles Bukowski, hero the so-called "Meat Poets" of the sixties and seventies. Wild episodes of drinking, gambling and womanizing seemingly drove and energized his writing.
While illuminating Bukowski's life in and around Los Angeles, Ben Pleasant's challenge of old buddy and loyal fan while official biographer brings him uneasily face to face with his subject's gusto for outrageous womanizing, drunkenness, as well as his tragic, intermittent enthusiasm for Nazism. Nevertheless, the author's long-time intimacy gave him a ring-side seat at the antics which animate this intriguing life story. Bukowski served as one of the lights of mid-twentieth century "hip" literature and this book affectionately declares, despite its unsavory aspects, his sincere commitment to his work be honorably documented.

I liked this book and felt it expanded my understanding of Buk as a person and writer. It is not a biography, though, but a series of anecdotes and interviews intertwined with the writer's own life story. It's a nice close-up view of Bukowski, kind of like being there with him, which was enjoyable. For a real biography, one would have to start with the Howard Sounes book and not this one. Some people have characterized this work of Pleasants as character assasination, but I didn't see it that way. This is a good supplement to the Sounes bio Locked In The Arms Of A Crazy Life.

"Visceral Bukowski: Inside the Sniper Landscape of L.A. Writers" is a must read for all Bukowski fans. Ben Pleasants, who was intended to be the Buk's biographer, gives a keen insight into the master's foibles that have eluded previous Boswells.

Ben Pleasants was a friend of Bukowski's. He was on a short list of people - including Gerald Locklin, John Thomas, John Martin (Bukowski's primary publisher), and precious few others - who maintained a cordial, long-term relationship with Bukowski. In fact, Pleasants had Bukowski's blessing to be his biographer, with Buk referring to him as, "my Boswell" in at least one letter. For whatever reason, Pleasants never completed the Buk biography.

What he did eventually write, years after Bukowski's death, was a series of vignettes based on his personal recollections and actual interviews with some of Bukowski's friends and childhood acquaintances. Two chapters of particular interest contain interviews with a pair of Bukowski's childhood companions. They both offer first-hand insight, exposing some of Buk's childhood recollections (which populate much of his work) to be slanted, self-serving, and at least in some cases, extreme distortions of actual fact.

Note: if you're unfamiliar with Pleasant's work - he's an LA-based writer - you'll learn more about his personal story that you might care to in the early chapters. However, in the context of the overall work, these recollections help tie things together, establishing how the author came to know Bukowski, and how his view of Buk the writer evolved over the years.

If you're a casual or beginner Bukowski fan looking for a good Buk bio, I would recommend Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, by Howard Sounes. If you're a long-time Bukowski fan who wants all the details of the man, the myth, and the Bukowski spin, this book will provide precious insight from a man who knew him well.