Help with a gift plz (1 Viewer)

[ribaij]

I'm thinking of buying a BUK book for a friend of mine. He has never read anything of BUK. Any ideas as to what I should get? What titles do you guys buy for your BUK-virgin-friends?
I was thinking about Septuagenarian Stew....

 

[nymark]

The two that did it for me were "Hot Water Music" and "Mockingbird Wish Me Luck." My brother gave me a copy of each back in 1984 and that was all she wrote. Bukowski has had his meat hooks in me ever since. They pair seem like a good representation of his prose/poems.

 

[poptop]

I'm thinking of buying a BUK book for a friend of mine. He has never read anything of BUK. Any ideas as to what I should get? What titles do you guys buy for your BUK-virgin-friends?
I was thinking about Septuagenarian Stew....

This would not be a bad choice at all, as it is a combination of both poetry and short stories"”the best of both worlds. And I doubt that you could go wrong with the great two that Nymark suggested; making for three of B's classics... The only addition I'd make is Post Office. It's full of the crazy, exasperated madness that made Bukowski the working man's hero, and he couldn't get the words down fast enough. Written in 20 days and nights, Post Office put the B on the literary map, and there will be no getting him off... As for myself, I would no longer be able to make a choice, because I couldn't have lived without any of them. Even when I think of the title Hot Water Music, I break out into a broad smile and feel good all over. Best wishes, and mockingbird wish you luck.

Poptop

 

[Michael Conrad]

i would go with ham on rye... if your friend is easily offended i think hank is most sympathetic in these stories due to his age... it makes the nasty stuff later more reasonable.

...plus it is fucking good...

 

[Haru]

My mum wanted to see what i loved about buk so much so i got her a magnet (she collects them) with "some people never go mad,what truly horrible lives they must lead" with buk for mothers day, she thought it was great. then gave her post office for her birthday,she liked it. for xmas she's getting women.probably will hate it but she's got this far. I'd say post office and a poetry book of his.x Start them off slow : )

 

[poptop]

Dear, dear mom mightn't hate Women after all. As Bukowski said himself, he wasn't exactly the hero in these sometimes hilarious escapades, and the book is full of him being cast adrift in a sea of female confusion, comedic mishaps, drunken sexual antics, and his own vulnerability to the fair sex, as a species from Mars, that he needed to suffer and exult with despite himself. There's great humor in seeing the omnipotent Bukowski so befuddled, but willing to suffer through it all, and come out the other side with his head still on his shoulders and, one hopes, his heart and soul intact.