As one of Buk's Women (sort of)...
.. it was my experience w/Buk that Buk was Chinaski in the flesh--the personna, for sure; the content, Chinaski's es- and sexcapades? much was exaggerated/fictionalized--for entertainment: Buk's and his readers... similar to Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer... in 1994 i wrote a rebuttal to the LA Times re: a put-down review of Neeli Cherkovski's bio, HANK, in which i defended Neeli's perception of Hank... the reviewer had accused Neeli of puffery hagiography, that Buk wasn't "that tough"...oh, yes he was... he cd be a ferocious lion or a sweetie pie... a genius brute or a gentle fool... Buk's letters reveal his mood at the time of writing: up, down, drunk, melancholy with hangover of love loss--every line packed with orginality... a lot of his poems and prose are his personal getting-evens as was his depiction of me in Barfly; i am some of the composite of the editor in the movie, the girl with the long hair who's not quite smart enuf to get him--his version, part-fantasy of me, what he wanted me to be; "i'll get even," he kidded with me after i rejected a poem of his titled "F.F." abt a couple men talking while urinating... "the poem is NOT abt men pissing" he wrote, "you are a bad editor".. in Barfly he has Wanda and the Editor engage in a crazy-jealous catfight--a situation Buk tried to incite between Linda King and me in the mid-70s... "I love women, especially when they love me" he said to me... Ricky, the Buk Researcher: my advice: read as many Buk letters as you can find; also read Jules Smith's dissertation easily available iin yr own country via UK's Wrecking Ball Press--check out the internet...Dr. Smith (the first to do a dis on Buk for a PhD) has compiled a brilliant ambrosia myriad of great Buk info... also, in my first BukRev, Fred Voss conducted a fascinating, revealing interview with 3 of Buk's Women: Linda King, Ann Menebroker and francEyE (mother of Marina Bukowski, Buk's only child)--available from pearl.mag...