What is the Best Bukowski book, whether it be poetry or a novel?

Bukowski was a great writer, someone who was pumping out the material just like a factory worker. (that he would write about all the time.) I would have to say that the best book of poetry is "The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps."
The best novel is "Factotum," with "Ham on Rye" being a really close second.
The best collection of his short stories is "South of No North."

Anyone else?

I would choose Post Office or Women over Factotum any day!
The Night Torn.. can´t compete with most of the poem collections printed while he was still alive. I´m thinking of books like Burning.., Dangling.., War.., Last Night..etc. - but I guess that´s a matter of taste...

women is my favourite bukowski book on earth--i'm actually almost through it for the millionth time right now. i've just finished reading post office, factotum, ham on rye, and now women again all in a three-week period and to me women is in a totally different league than the other three. i find the writing is better, and it elicits a much larger range of emotions. there are laugh-out-loud parts (the camping in utah sequence kills me every single time) and really kind of sad and sobering parts, as well as the bit near the end, chapter 92 i believe, where chinaski just bottoms out and it's totally heartbreaking...

for poetry, the one i read most often is last night of the earth poems, but possibly for nostalgia's sake, my all-time fave poetry is love is a dog from hell (my first buk ever).

Woman is also my favourite, maybe because it was the very first Buk-book I read? The novel has more layers...Read it tons of times. It's 23 years later now and still re reading. Twice a year or so.

Funniest story: Scum Grief from Hot water music.

There is no best poem....but I do like The Twins very much.
Might be something for a new topic, your 10 all time favourite Buk poems.

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Mockingbird Wish Me Luck is his greatest, if not the greatest, book of poetry ever written. I find it the most pure, relentless and beautiful piece of work I have ever read. My favourite novel of his would have to be Factotum.

Yes, Women is a very, very good book, as are most Bukowski books, and Post Office is really good as well. But I'm still going with Factotum. It was just such an interesting book for me, with all the material about his past jobs and his life in between. I've had over twenty different jobs in my life, so maybe it hits a little closer to home for me. The movie was... okay, but not great.
As for the issue of what's better, the poems he printed while still alive or the posthumous ones, that's a hard arguement that I don't think anyone will be able to come to a complete agreement on. I mean, has anyone read the most recent edition, "The People Look Like Flowers at Last?" I was actually surprised at what a great collection of poetry it was. And hell, Bukowski even said himself one time that he thought the best poetry he's ever written was the stuff at the end of his life, when he was past 55 and living in a nice home with a hot tub in the back.

We´ve had that discussion before here in the forum and there´s a general consensus that the poem collections printed while he was still alive are superior to the posthumous collections. That does not mean that all the posthumous poems are bad (there are some pretty good ones among them), just not quite as good - in general (Come On In was a dissapointment to me).
Nope, it will never come to a complete agreement (nothing ever does). We all have our own taste - thank God...

Slightly off topic - but I really wish all these posthumous collections had dates – at least a year – for each poem.
I was reading the people look like flowers last night and the question ‘when was this one written’ popped into my head with every poem I read.
This work needs to be done eventually… an index of all published poems, their year of publication and the year they were written.

yea i think an updated database is gonna blow us away
even if we have to wait , like an animal clear until the reptile age of 2525.

Recently reread all his novels and Women is my pick.

Ooo, sorry mjp, I was not pushing you on the data-base thing. I meant in book form so sad, pedantic nerds like me can pour over the minutia of all things Bukowskji
(I accidentally hit the 'j' and liked the look of it)

As far as date writen, wouldn't that be near impossible? John Martin would have the best idea of a date on what he has published, but many poems that he has in his files may have been there since 1973, 1983, 1993....

Unless the poem had a first publication in a magazine, it seems that it would almost be a guess as to when it was written. You can estimate a "latest it could have been written" date, but cannot tell how long it sat with Bukowski or John Martin before it was published for the first time. Bukowski did not sign most of the manuscipt copies that he sent to John Martin for publication and many of the poems went straing to BSP without going to the littles first.

Although it seems like a great idea, that seems like it could be a project that could take years of intense research and then would be so untrustworthy that it would not be effective.

Some poems we know are early from the fact that it was published early, but using a "Jane" poem as an example, some of them could have been written at any time. Am I looking at this wrong?

Bill

Bukowski has a very similar style throughout every book, that is what so good about him, he has a style, and he brings it with him every time: tuned to the same note. I would be happy reading just about anything he wrote...but forking out for it might not prove to liberal.

I love in particular, Tales of Ordinary Madness, The Last Night of the Earth Poems, The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses over the Hills, Ham on Rye!!

But didnt Bukowski sign each poem and date it?

Oh, and as for my favorite Bukowski book...Run with the Hunted. The anthology. I think that the editing was spot on and really gave you a fare insight into bukowski.
Damn, it's f@#kin hard to pick one.

I wonder what happend to the original poems buk sent to Martin...

Factotum. The last few paragraphs sting like few others.

by far, to me
it be
The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills
then 2nd
would be
notes of a dirty old man
but who knows
what's the best, who
knows

it's between "The Firm" and "A Time To Kill", definitely.

But that´s not Buk books...

yea, that was a stab at sardonic humor. folks walking around in the grocery store buying their reading material on the same aisle as magazines and dog food. hell, i wear my bukowski shirt all over the place and not once has anyone even acknowledged it. they like the muddy waters shirt but they either don't know or are to shy to say a word. i fear it is the former, though that kinda gives me a feeling of serenity. they're missing so much, but they paid their tithes this week, so it's okay

When I wear my Buk sweatshirt (with the Crumb drawing from the cover of The Captain...) people do ask me sometimes who it is, but I´ve never had a total stranger coming up to me and asking. The great majority apparently prefers supermarket bestsellers...

bukfan and a few others here have a knowledge i don't have

the words and works flow dates and editors at the tips of your fingers

i have a glass of whiskey and a beer to chase this amber

so bless ya'll

the first thing i read from him was the short story "bring me your love". I loved it so much because it had a great truth to it. you cant judge other peoples drama because you dont know the whole truth, its not always as simple as what is blatantly obvious. the whole time i was reading, i was thinking, this woman is a psycho!! what a b!tch, her husband is so sweet, poor guy! well i wont ruin it for you if you havent read it but i loved. maybe i could relate to that psycho chick!! haha

my fav poem is "alone with everyone"
the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break
vases against the walls
and the men drink too
much
and nobody finds the
one
but keep
looking
crawling in and out
of beds.
flesh covers
the bone and the
flesh searches
for more than
flesh.

there's no chance
at all:
we are all trapped
by a singular
fate.

nobody ever finds
the one.

the city dumps fill
the junkyards fill
the madhouses fill
the hospitals fill
the graveyards fill

nothing else
fills.

***it just reminds me of being single haha

fav book so far is post office, i have quite a few more to read so i will check out your suggestions.

ps i have yet to randomly meet someone who likes bukowski lol

Women gets my vote for best novel. Or at the least, best novel I've read so far. The only other one I've read is Factotum.

The Night Torn Mad...is very good. I have a soft spot for Sifting Through the Madness...as it was my first Buk book ever.

Haven't read Last Night of the Earth Poems, but I've heard it's possibly his strongest volume of all.