discussion of Buk biogs (1 Viewer)

[ClassIntellectual]

I'm currently a visting student at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Yes, that place, the home of golf. Guess what I'm doing: playing golf and visiting the library and studying when I actually give a shit. Unfortunately, the library only has two books remotely related to Hank, and they're both biographies:
"Charles Bukowski: Locked in the arms of a crazy life." by Howard Sounes, 1998

and

"Bukowski: A Life." by Neeli Cherkovski, 1997.

Anyone read either of these?
Because personally, the Neeli book seemed much more personal and direct, due to his face-to-face interactions with the man himself, but the writing sucked. Sounes' book is based more on interviews but it comes across somehow as more honest, believable, and amazing.

 

[cirerita]

I think most people here have read both and the common consensus is that Cherkovski's plain sucks and Sounes' is a good one but could be better :D

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
I bet that most people on this list have read both books. Writing about Buk is a bit tough, I think due to the fact that a majority of his word was an autobiography that took him over 40 years to write. Those that have read him as much as some of those on this list would probably have not found much that they did not know from having read his poems and novels. I use the bios when I forget something. If I forget when Bukowski was married to Barbara Fry, I go to the bios as a reference, where the poems would not give me the dates that I may need and they would be hard to find all the poems about Barbara Fry, for instance, in one place.

Bill

 

[cirerita]

If I forget when Bukowski was married to Barbara Fry, I go to the bios as a reference

I think a timeline is better than going to the bios. I know there's a timeline in the works to be published here. I'm sure it'll be useful for a lot of people.

 

[hank solo]

mjp - didn't these pages have a timeline when they were part of smog.net?

 

[mjp]

Hmm, I don't think so...unless I spaced out a big chunk of my life, which isn't out of the question.

But cirerita did supply me with a timeline he used and I'm going to meld it with one I was working on, and maybe we'll have something to look at soon...

 

[hank solo]

i just remember a page somewhere with details like when Bukowski changed address, jobs, etc... oh well it was somewhere online once

 

[mjp]

Oh, I think that was on one of the old manuscript pages?

I just noticed that manuscripts page is a little messed up. Some of the dates are off. That will be fixed when we start using the new database.

 

[Bruno Dante]

Just started reading the Howard Sounes one. It's a bit 'dry' if you know what I mean but interesting nonetheless.