What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire [Paperback]

Charles Bukowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

This second posthumous collection from Charles Bukowski takes readers deep into the raw, wild vein of writing that extends from the early 70s to the 1990s.

Editorial Reviews

Review

$100
$180 Gone
The 12 Hour Night
3 Old Men At Separate Tables
38,000-to-one
4 Christs
75 Million Dollars
The 8 Count Concerto
About A Trip To Spain
Action On The Corner
An Afternoon In February
Am I The Only One Who Suffers Thus?
The Angel Who Pushed His Wheelchair
Anonymity
Another Day
Apprentices
The Artist
Artistic Selfishness
Assault
At The Zoo
Ax And Blade
The Bakers Of 1935
Be Alone
Beast
Beethoven Conducted His Last Symphony While Totally Deaf
The Bells
Blue Beads And Bones
Blue Head Of Death
The Blue Pigeon
Born To Lose
A Boy And His Dog
Bravo!
Bright Lights And Serpents
Brown And Solemn
Bruckner
Butterflies
Canned Heat?
Captain Goodwine
Carlton Way Off Western Ave.
Christmas Poem To A Man In Jail
The Cigarette Of The Sun
The Circus Of Death
Coke Blues
Combat Primer
Comments Upon My Last Book Of Poesy
Computer Class
A Correction To A Lady Of Poesy
Crickets
The Crowd
The Crunch (2)
The Dangerous Ladies
Daylight Saving Time
Demise
Dog Fight 1990
Downtown
Everywhere, Everywhere
Farewell My Lovely
Fast Track
Fellow Countryman
The First One
Floor Job
Full Moon
The Gamblers
German Bar
Gone Away
Guess Who?
Hanging There On The Wall
Hard Times On Carlton Way
He Knows Us All
Hollywood Ranch Market
The Hookers, The Madmen And The Doomed
Horseshit
Hunchback
Hunger
I Hear All The Latest Hit Tunes
I Inherit
I Used To Feel Sorry For Henry Miller
I Want A Mermaid
I'll Send You A Postcard
The Icecream People
Igloo
Image
In The Lobby
In This Cage Some Songs Are Born
In This City Now
Insanity
An Interlude
La Femme Finie
The Last Poetry Reading
Legs
Legs And White Thighs
Legs, Hips And Behind
Life Of The King
Lifedance
Like A Cherry Seed In The Throat
Locked In
Looking For Jack
Mademoiselle From Armentieres
Mahler
Man's Best Friend
The Man?
Me And Capote
Mean And Stingy
The Meaning Of It All
Memory
The Mice
More Argument
Morning Love
My Big Moment
My Father And The Bum
My Father's Big-time Fling
My Friends Down At The Corner
My Garden
My Literary Fly
My Movie
Nana
Neither A Borrower Nor A Lender Be
A New War
The Night I Saw George Raft In Vegas
No Guru
No Title
Nobody Home
Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
Note Left On The Dresser By A Lady Friend
Odd
An Old Jockey
On Lighting A Cigar
On Shaving
On The Sidewalk And In The Sun
One More Good One
One-to-five
The Ordinary Cafe Of The World
The Pact
The People
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, 1939
Phillipe's 1950
Plants Which Easily Winter Kills
Poor Mimi
The Pretty Girl Who Rented Rooms
Probably So
The Professionals
The Railroad Yard
Rape
Raw With Love
Revolt In The Ranks
Roll The Dice
The Savior: 1970
Scene From 1940
School Days
The Sensitive, Young Poet
She Comes From Somewhere
The Silver Mirror
The Singer
Slaughter
Sloppy Love
Smiling, Shining, Singing
Snake Eyes?
Some Notes On Bach And Haydn
Sometimes Even Putting A Nickel Into A Parking Meter Feels Good
Stuck With It
Sunday Lunch At The Holy Mission
Tabby Cat
Thanks For That
They Arrived In Time
This Moment
This Particular War
Time
To Lean Back Into It
Too Many Blacks
Too Soon
A Touch Of Steel
Trouble In The Night
An Unusual Place
Vallejo
Van Gogh
Victory!
A Vote For The Gentle Light
Wasted
The Way It Works
We Needed Him
What Do They Want?
What's It All Mean?
What?
When The Violets Roar At The Sun
White Dog
Wide And Moving
Wind The Clock
Winter: 44th Year
Woman In The Supermarket
You Do It While You're Killing Flies
The Young Man On The Bus Stop Bench
Young Men
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Fast and funny, these 200-odd pieces, which date from the 1970's up through the 1990's, cover little new ground stylistically or thematically. -- The New York Times Book Review, Jennifer Schuessler

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 409 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; 1 edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574231057
• ISBN-13: 978-1574231052
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,299 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

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bukowski returns to true form in these not previously poems, November 25, 1999

By 

S. S. Harrison (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (Paperback)

I've personally been slightly let down in recent years by the books which have come out of Bukowski's. (he died in 1994). I picked up this collection half expecting more of the same. Didn't Bukowski himself insist that some of his work was not-so-great? Well, this collection was a delight and a surprize! Most of these poems are from the early 1970's when Bukowski lived in East Hollywood. In these poems, (which have never been published until now) he belts out hymns to the outsiders, the lost, the cheated and the ignored. He trains his eye on the poor and the underdog. I personally thought this collection was nothing short of magnificent. Bukowski is back! No freeway, bottle and music up in a room old man poems. I liked those too but I'd had enough of them. I will lay it down straight: of ALL Bukowski's books this is my favorite and I've read them all.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Bukowski, December 21, 1999

By 

jmw (Ann Arbor) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (Paperback)

While Buk has been dead for 5 years now, his estate has continued to publish from a collection of accumulated writings. This is by far the best of the posthumously published books to date, with particularly strong poems from his best years...this book may in fact be the best Buk work published in 20 years. If you are new to Bukowski, this is a good volume with which to start...if you are an old fan, you will not be disappointed with this collection.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bukowski Matters Most, December 8, 1999

By 

kevin griffith - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (Paperback)

Bukowski's latest will not let avid readers down. Better than _Bone Palace Ballet_--which was essentially just a second-drawer version of _Last Night of the Earth Poems_--_What Matters Most. . ._ is a compilation of work that spans over twenty years and includes some vintage Bukowski that has been missing from recent Black Sparrow releases. This latest collection gives me hope that we can expect more quality Bukowski work well into the next century.