i grew up here in southern california, and as a kid i
couldn't understand why most people thought everything was
just a-ok in spite of all the nuclear bombs pointed it your
head and all that shit. if it weren't for sneak-reading
bukowski books inside my textbook in junior high school, i
might have been worse off, but he made me laugh at the horror
of human failure and also want to write about it. and i
wouldn't have discovered john fante, nathaniel west, and
subesequently the hard-boiled/noir novels that along with
scotch, writing, and my hot girlfriend make life
worthwhile.
for miker, i'm gonna argue that you might want to skip the
short story collections recommended by others (hot water
music, tales of ordinary madness, etc.) and skip straight to
the novels. buk's poetry and stories are funny and sad and
insane, but he is best as a novelist. these are his best, i
think:
Post Office Women Ham On Rye Factotum
as for which fit into the noir tradition, i'd say none of
them. he never deals with crime in his novels. he just writes
about drinking, fighting, screwing, cooking beans, and what
it's like to be a loser. his prose style is always spare and
direct like much hardboiled. but his nihilism is very
self-reflexive. he never seems as despairing as say our man
of the month David Goodis, but he seems more defiantly
unconstrained by the need for something to happen than any
noir writer i can think of. sometimes i think i've outgrown
him, but i still have a heart for him. he was an ugly
pockmarked son of a bitch and his father was a dick. but he
showed them all & became famous and even a kind of rock
star. and he would've probably been happy for a visit from
vickie or any woman till the very end.
maybe a 20 year later revisit to the above novels is in
order.
d.a.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, vhend1234@... wrote:
>
> That sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll put it on my
list, but you should
> see this place. I could get rid of the walls and
just let the books hold up the
> ceiling.
> Vicki
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
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