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Ben Pleasants

Visceral Bukowski: Inside the Sniper Landscape of L.A. Writers Paperback – January 1, 2004

by Ben Pleasants (Author)

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Cultural Writing. VISCERAL BUKOWSKI is a memoir of a 20-year friendship with deep insights into the personal life of Charles Bukowski and the city of Los Angeles. Here are clear chapters on childhood friends, Bukowski's flirtation with Nazism, how Pleasants and Bukowski together rediscover John Fante, adventures in Hollywood, the women, the jobs, the booze and the writing; the way it really happened without the fiction. A strikingly rich portrayal of Bukowski, a poet, who was "alive and glowing in his place in time"--Los Angeles Times.

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"Pleasants offers a strikingly rich portrayal of Bukowski, a poet who was 'alive and glowing in his place in time.'"

About the Author

Ben Pleasants is a writer who writes about writers. As a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, he was the first writer in the U.S. to review Charles Bukowski in a major newspaper.

His books of poetry include Airmail From Oblivion and 53 Stations of the Tokaido. In the last decade he has concentrated on theatre.

Product details

Paperback : 232 pages
Item Weight : 14 ounces
ISBN-10 : 0941543382
ISBN-13 : 978-0941543385
Product Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.75 x 9 inches
Publisher : Sun Dog Press (January 1, 2004)
Language: : English

Best-sellers rank #2,392,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#152 in Beat Generation Criticism
#1,219 in Western U.S. Biographies
#3,522 in Poetry Literary Criticism (Books)

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9 ratings

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Martin A. Egan

Visceral Bukowski

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2013

Verified Purchase

Ben Pleasants seems to be debunking most of Bukowski's Life Story. In my own experience of childhood abuse you don't get to know it that well by inventing it or reading about it. U experience it. MM

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Jon C. Hopwood

Must Read For All Bukowski Fans

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2010

Verified Purchase

"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.

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A.W.

Welcome to Bukowski's life as a struggling writer and his dilapidated apartment.

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018

I have, since Bukowski's movie about L.A. skid row drunks and reading some of his poetry, been intrigued by him. This book opens him up and gives the reader gritty visions of dilapidated apartments in 60 and 70's L.A. and a very real man trying and succeeding at writing. Love the plentiful references to books, newspapers, and films from the author and friend of Bukowski who worked as a librarian with the respect librarians have for intellectual property. Descent read.

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Brian D. Hackert

fine close-up memoir

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2008

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.

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Jam Econo

A Strange Brew

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2007

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.

3 people found this helpful

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Big Buk Fan

Underrated. First-Hand Insight.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2009

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.

One person found this helpful

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Gloria Gonick

talent and tragedy

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2005

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.

3 people found this helpful

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Pages with related products. See and discover other items: california landscapes

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Visceral Bukowski: Inside the Sniper Landscape of L.A. Writers Paperback – January 1, 2004

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