Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems

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Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems (eBook) Pub. Date: 3/17/2009 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
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Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems Pub. Date: 5/28/2002 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

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Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems Pub. Date: 3/30/1990 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
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Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems Pub. Date: 6/1/1990 Publisher: Godine, David R. Publishers, Inc.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In his latest collection, prolific Bukowski ( Hollywood ) confronts the reader with many of the same down-and-out themes he has been writing about for years. His work for the most part is populated here with society's losers--alcoholic bums, mad housewives, compulsive gamblers--their decaying selves slipping inexorably into oblivion. Life's supposed winners fare no better. The movie star in the story ``Fame'' is murdered by a fanatic fan. The writer in ``Action,'' who once smugly refused the Pulitzer Prize, squanders all his money at the racetrack and wastes his creative abilities in the process. Even the author's fictionalized self, Henry Chinaski, rescued from being ``a pile of human rubble'' by an editor interested in his work, can never transcend the junk heap of human existence. He continues to rely, paradoxically, on booze to help him survive. Bukowski's rejection of the redemptive power of love and his refusal to probe the psychological origins of his and his characters' behavior limits the validity of his message. Aside from several arresting images and some entertaining dialogue, the writing is flat and uninspired. (June)

Library Journal

The prolific poet laureate of the lowlife celebrates his 70th birthday with this long, uneven melange of tales and poems. Many explore familiar Bukowski subjects of alcohol, sex, gambling, writing, and the violence at the heart of human relationships. Taking place on the Los Angeles backstreets, they sympathetically depict individuals whose lives are circumscribed by barrooms and bad jobs. Other pieces present a different view, as Bukowski looks at the vicissitudes of life as a wealthy and famous writer or faces fears of physical and artistic decline. Harry Chinaski, Bukowski's cynical, misogynistic, yet ultimately sympathetic alter ego appears throughout. There is an excellent 200-page book among the nearly 400 pages gathered here. For larger collections.-- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780876857946
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 5/28/2002
Pages: 384
Sales rank: 692,825
Product dimensions: 5.94 (w) x 8.94 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Charles Bukowski

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.

Biography

During the course of his long, prolific literary career, Charles Bukowski was known as a poet, novelist, short story writer, and journalist. But it is as a cult figure, an "honorary beat" who chronicled his notorious lifestyle in raw, unflinching poetry and prose, that he is best remembered. Born in the aftermath of World War I to a German mother and an American serviceman of German descent, he was brought to the U.S. at the age of three and raised in Los Angeles. By all accounts, his childhood was lonely and unhappy: His father beat him regularly, and he suffered from debilitating shyness and a severely disfiguring case of acne. By his own admission, he underwent a brief flirtation with the far right, associating as a teenager with Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. After high school, he attended Los Angeles City College for two years, studying art, literature, and journalism before dropping out.

Although two of his stories were published in small literary magazines while he was still in his early 20s, Bukowski became discouraged by his lack of immediate success and gave up writing for ten years. During this time he drifted around the country, working odd jobs; fraternizing with bums, hustlers, and whores; and drinking so excessively that he nearly died of a bleeding ulcer.

In the late 1950s, Bukowski returned to writing, churning out copious amounts of poetry and prose while supporting himself with mind-numbing clerical work in the post office. Encouraged and mentored by Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin, he finally quit his job in 1969 to concentrate on writing full time. In 1985, he married his longtime girlfriend Linda Lee Beighle. Together they moved to San Pedro, California, where Bukowski began to live a saner, more stable existence. He continued writing until his death from leukemia in 1994, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.

Bukowski mined his notorious lifestyle for an oeuvre that was largely autobiographical. In literally thousands of poems, he celebrated the skid row drunks and derelicts of his misspent youth; and, between 1971 and 1989, he penned five novels (Post Office, Factotum, Women, Ham on Rye, and Hollywood) featuring Henry Chinaski, an alcoholic, womanizing, misanthrope he identified as his literary alter ego. (He also wrote the autobiographical screenplay for the 1987 film Barfly, starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.) Yet, for all the shock value of his graphic language and violent, unlovely images, Bukowski's writing retains a startling lyricism. Today, years after his death, he remains one of the 20th century's most influential and widely imitated writers.

1. Date of Birth:
  
  August 16, 1920
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Andernach, Germany
1. Date of Death:
  
  March 9, 1994
2. Place of Death:
  
  San Pedro, California
1. Education:
  
  Los Angeles City College, 2 years

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Anonymous

Posted May 1, 2011

Words cannot express.

This book changed my life. I don't know how or why. I think it was only because this was one of the first Bukowski books I bought (the other was the Post Office). I fell instantly in love with this man and his writing. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Everyone who hasn't yet should discover Buk for themselves and should really pick this one up. It's got a great blend of stories and poems. You can get a sense of how he writes and who he is. Any Buk fan would be pleased with this one. As always.
I don't really know what to say, I can't do it justice. Just going to have to trust me on this one.
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Anonymous

Posted December 26, 2009

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