Charles Bukowski: Laughing With The Gods

[HenryChinaski]

I recently got this off ebay but haven't received it yet. Has anybody read it and if so, what are your thoughts on it? reviews, arguements, ect...

 

[cirerita]

It's a good, long interview conducted by Fernanda Pivano in the early 80's... the human heart anecdote is there, too.

 

[HenryChinaski]

I got it for like five bucks so I guess it was an alright deal. I can't wait to read it.

 

[HenryChinaski]

well I read it in one sitting last night.
the first interview was conducted on
August 24th, 1980 at Buk's home in San Pedro, Ca. (Joe Wolberg & Linda Lee also present)
it's probably one of the/if not the best interviews I've read lately. It sheds so much light into Buk and really gets down and talks about pretty much everything, well a lot of it anyways. I particularly enjoyed when Hank was talking about the cat they took in and about how he layed with it in the bathroom and didnt go to the track or anything. He talked and talked to it and it had been ran over. the vet said it would never walk and Buk just kept at it and finally one day he got up on all fours and beat the odds.
I also liked the part Buk was talking about when a guy gave him a human heart in a jar of formaldehyde. He said it made me him so sick to his stomach that he felt like throwing up every time he looked at it. He said...I could go to jail for having this! And one morning he drank a beer then looked in the closet at the heart and it was veiny and he ran to the bathroom and threw the beer back up. Linda Lee and Joe Wolberg said that they both had never heard anything about the heart in the jar.
All in all, Fernanda Pivano takes a really in depth look into who Henry Charles Bukowski, Junior really is. Theres two interviews that take up about 104 pages and the last part tells about most of his novels and about how he cant really be compared to Kerouac or Miller but the only similarity being that Kerouac drank and Miller had sex. Thats it. READ IT YOURSELF. You owe yourself that much at least...

 

[HenryChinaski]

this should be in the thread

I think I've finally figured out what Sugar Co. is.
Today I got a copy of "Charles Bukowski: Laughing With The Gods" in the mail.
Well the interview was done in the 80's and didnt get translated till a long time later. It says...

Copyright 2000 by Fernanda Pivano
Copyright 2000 by Linda Lee Bukowski
Copyright 1982 by SugarCo, Milano, Italy

SO you do the math. ahahhahahahahaha

 

[HenryChinaski]

...

yes I totally agree with you.

to be honest...I don't think Laughing With The Gods was translated till 2000.
it was published in 82 in Italy. That just shows you how long the whole translating process takes, although there could've been many other factors that came into play.

 

[HenryChinaski]

and this...

The Fernanda Pivano book was translated into Spanish many years ago, probably in the early 90's. The English translation -Laughing with the Gods- is a far cry from the Spanish one -Lo que más me gusta es rascarme los sobacos, literally meaning "What I enjoy the most is scratching my armpits"- which, in turn, is a semi-literal translation of the original Italian title: Quello che importa é grattarmi sotto le ascelle.

You see, translation is a funny thing... sometimes.

 

[HenryChinaski]

It's a good, long interview conducted by Fernanda Pivano in the early 80's... the human heart anecdote is there, too.

YES the heart in the jar! Thats probably the best part of the interview. well one of them anyways.

 

[Charlie]

That cat run over by the car - is it at all related to the cat from the poem "the history of a tough motherfucker"?

 

[HenryChinaski]

I'm not sure right off...but his name was Mensch

I'm wondering if it is also the same cat in the Bukowski tapes when he picks him up and says..."what is it baby?"