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Charles Bukowski

Hot Water Music Paperback – October 1, 1983

by Charles Bukowski (Author)

74 ratings

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With his characteristic raw and minimalist style, Charles Bukowski takes us on a walk through his side of town in Hot Water Music. He gives us little vignettes of depravity and lasciviousness, bite sized pieces of what is both beautiful and grotesque.

The stories in Hot Water Music dash around the worst parts of town – a motel room stinking of sick, a decrepit apartment housing a perpetually arguing couple, a bar tended by a skeleton – and depict the darkest parts of human existence. Bukowski talks simply and profoundly about the underbelly of the working class without raising judgement.

In the way he writes about sex, relationships, writing, and inebriation, Bukowski sets the bar for irreverent art – his work inhabits the basest part of the mind and the most extreme absurdity of the everyday.

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From the Publisher

At HarperCollins, authors and their work are at the center of everything we do. We are proud to provide our authors with unprecedented editorial excellence, marketing reach, long-standing connections with booksellers, and insight into reader and consumer behavior. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins also uses digital technology to create unique reading experiences and expand the reach of our authors.

HarperCollins was founded by brothers James and John Harper in New York City in 1817 as J. and J. Harper, later Harper & Brothers. In 1987, as Harper & Row, it was acquired by News Corporation. The worldwide book group was formed following News Corporation's 1990 acquisition of the British publisher William Collins & Sons. Founded in 1819, William Collins & Sons published a range of Bibles, atlases, dictionaries, and reissued classics, expanding over the years to include legendary authors such as H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis.

The house of Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown, HarperCollins has a long and rich history that reaches back to the early nineteenth century and offers our publishing team a depth of experience.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Hot Water Music is a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, published in 1983. The collection deals largely with: drinking, women, gambling, and writing. It is an important collection that establishes Bukowski's minimalist style and his thematic oeuvre.

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 1920 in Andernach, Germany, to an American soldier father and a German mother, and brought to the United States at the age of two. He was raised in Los Angeles and lived there for over fifty years. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.

Abel Debritto, a former Fulbright scholar and current Marie Curie fellow, works in the digital humanities. He is the author of Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground, and the editor of the Bukowski collections On Writing, On Cats, and On Love.

Product details

Item Weight : 8.3 ounces
Paperback : 226 pages
ISBN-10 : 0876855966
ISBN-13 : 978-0876855966
Publisher : Black Sparrow Press; Later Printing Edition (October 1, 1983)
Product Dimensions : 5.59 x 0.57 x 8.9 inches
Language: : English

Best-sellers rank #113,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#25 in Absurdist Fiction (Books)
#28 in Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing
#601 in Biographical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
74 ratings

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5 star		64%
4 star		17%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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Michael B

Kindle ebook mostly ok

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2020

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This kindle ebook edition is mostly ok. I didn't notice any glaring typos. The formatting uses too much space between paragraphs, which interferes with readability in dialog sections — and especially when quoting verse, which happens throughout the book. Examples on pages: 82-85, 115-16, 210. But taken as a whole it's a tolerable ebook edition.

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Zardoz

Entertaining read in some parts

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2020

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Some entertaining vignettes. Not all of this book is that much fun to read. some of it felt like Charles Bukowski was phoning it in. I say this because I am a bukowski fan. And I know when his work is great and I know what it isn't.

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Jesca

I love anything by Bukowski anyway

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2016

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Quality was as expected for buying from a "used book store" or goodwill for that matter. But none of the pages are torn and there isn't writing on any on the pages. I love anything by Bukowski anyway, so as long as I could read the words on the pages I'd buy it if the price was right.

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Aaron Smith

And a few of the others are pretty familiar to me as well though I couldn't tell ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2016

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I'm a huge Bukowski fan, I'm not a scholar or biographer however. I don't pay much attention to when his books were originally published. But one has to be really careful. He recycled a lot of material during his career. Several of the short stories in this book are recycled from his novel Women or he ended up using the same life experiences in Women. Either way, as I've gotten through more and more of his work there are an awful lot of repeats. And a few of the others are pretty familiar to me as well though I couldn't tell you which books I read them in. Some of the problem is who ever keeps publishing the garbage Bukowski never intended for the public. The books is good. It is entertaining. For myself, I think his writing is weakest in the short story form, while I think he is a fine novelist and poet. Many of the stories in this book, while I ultimately like where he takes them, could have done with his much more stripped down poetic style. His short stories also feel the least creative to me. Many of these are just very flat stories about drunks, whores and weirdos. Now don't get me wrong, I can read lots of material about drunks, whores and weridos, but about half these stories feel like material I get from undergraduates in my creative writing class. In other words, there would be a lot of red ink if some of these stories got submitted to me.

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Jake

Decent Book

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2014

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I bought this book because it was named by Kristen Stewart as one of her favourite books, at the start i didn't realise what was going on and why each chapter was about totally different things but then realised that the book is a compilation of short stories, get's into a bit of sexual detail so if that's not for you i don't recommend, but overall quite a good book to read.

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JimmyGrits

Bukowski is fantastic. His collections of short stories make for some ...

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2014

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Bukowski is fantastic. His collections of short stories make for some enjoyable easy reading that you can read into deeply if you want or just take them as they are.

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Greqt

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019

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Great book

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Interesting Read

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2013

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This was a very interesting book! I read some of Bukowski's poetry at an exhibit at my local botanical gardens and library and thought it was fascinating, so I decided to check out his books. They are a little crazy but definitely worth the read.

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César Holgado

this is a good book to start

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2016

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If do not know about Bukowski, this is a good book to start. And if you know, well, you will get more of his tough writing. I read it more than thirty years ago and it still my favourite of the author. You can really say that it is hard to stop once you start moving through the seedy LA with him. Sometimes realistic and sometimes kind of "Pulp Science Fiction", his direct and honest style will surely make his legend last.

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bang

The great and the okay.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2015

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Some great studies in "lowly" characters. Short pieces so easy to drop in and out. Plus if your find yourself in a story you don't really dig then at least it'll be over soon.
Some moments of greatness, some less so.

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Tiago Nogueira

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2016

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Good price.

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A. Seaman

What can I say?!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2014

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Great stuff from start to finish. Bukowski has a unique way of looking at the world. I don't really know what to say other than I thought it was a great read and my copy is slowly becoming dog-eared as I keep returning to it.

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Carlo Ienna

An intro to Bukowski

Reviewed in Canada on August 3, 2015

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I like this book by Bukowski because it's just straight forward. His style is highlighted in a series of short stories fueled by his alcohol addiction and pragmatic views on society. I think this book will be a good introduction for those who seek a different fiction narrative that yet remains contemporary.

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Mark T

Don't expect the awesomeness of his novels

Reviewed in Canada on October 14, 2015

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What did I find out from Hot Water Music? That even though I LOVE Bukowski's novels, which I own and have read multiple times, his short stories leave me cold.

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aanchal jauhari

This book is a let down for all bukowski fans

Reviewed in India on June 18, 2018

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Horrible and drag

One person found this helpful

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JOAO PAULO DE OLIVEIRA

Great!

Reviewed in Brazil on September 5, 2014

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Great Chinasky! Nice book, Bukowski is genius, genuine and amazing writer. Everybody must know his texts, he writes about real life.

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Squid

Helps you feel like it's ok to get loser pissed on a wednesday

Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2014

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Of course work on Thursday kind of sucks, but maybe that's the point?

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Roberta Ylenia Tartaglia

Hot Water Music - Charles Bukowski

Reviewed in Italy on July 8, 2014

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Libro assolutamente consigliato, per me il migliore di Bukowski tra quelli letti fino ad ora. Una raccolta di racconti sorprendente, soprattutto se letta in inglese.

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Alexandra Pogossova

Something real here lies

Reviewed in Canada on March 5, 2014

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Brilliant collection of short stories from the master of American prose. From the dark corners of a hopelessly romantic, poetic mind- comes strangely genuine illumination - like Buddha with a shot (or seven) of hard liquor.

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Ms Darling

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2017

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What's more to say, Its Bukowski

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Fabio D'Apice

Super

Reviewed in Germany on August 9, 2015

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Super Buch von einem Super Schriftsteller. Ich habe es sehr schnell gelesen. Packung perfekt. Buch auch perfekt. Sehr gute Taschenbuchausgabe (auf Englisch). Ich empfehle es weiter.

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