Mr. S on Mr. B (new memoir by Jory Sherman) (2 Viewers)

looks like he inherited his father's talent for painting...poor kid.

possibly the worst overall cover design i've ever seen. wow. shocking. it's too early in the
morning to see that.
 
Bukowski lived on Mariposa from 1958 through 1963, according to the Timeline. BIC disposable lighters were first made in 1973. A minor error in Sherman's blog when he says he lit up with his BIC while visiting Buk at his Mariposa apartment, but it caught my eye.

I'm wondering if this new memoir is an expansion of Sherman's earlier 38 page chapbook, Bukowski: Friendship, Fame and Bestial Myth, or an entirely new work. This new book is probably worth reading, although I find his style a bit bloated. But he did know Bukowski, they were friends, so there's probably plenty of interesting information in it.
 
I'm wondering if this new memoir is an expansion of Sherman's earlier 38 page chapbook, Bukowski: Friendship, Fame and Bestial Myth, or an entirely new work.
I wondered too, but this new thing is obviously more than padding, since it adds 140 pages. I remember liking Friendship, Fame and Bestial Myth so I'll certainly give this new one a read.

I just have to wonder, why not a 178 page book back in 1984, when Friendship was published and the memories were a little less stale and blurry? Maybe his Chi wasn't right at the time.

The cover "art" - what can you even say about that? It's so horrible that it's almost kind of transcendent. So bad it's beyond comment. That just may be genius at work.
 
It's easily the ugliest, deadest looking Bukowski portrait ever.

A full memoir would have been better written in 1984 than 2011. Memory does not improve with age, it deteriorates, and you get confused pseudo memories, like lighting your smoke with a BIC in the early 1960s. Back then, it was either matches or a Zippo style durable lighter, not those cheapshit plastic BICs.

So while it may be a good read, I wouldn't totally trust whatever new information it has beyond what's in the 1984 memoir. And the '84 memoir would have been better written in the 70s. My 1982 memoir of Buk has garbled accounts of events in the late 60s-early 70s. Wish I'd kept a diary. Maybe Sherman has notebooks, journals he can consult. If not, that was a long time ago, so take it with a grain of salt.
 
... not to badmouth a book I haven't even read. I'm just saying it may not be completely reliable as a factual document, unless Sherman worked from notes made at the time of the events he writes about. There's no reason to think, however, that he doesn't accurately capture the spirit of things, such as what Bukowski was like as a friend. But if he's relying on memory when it comes to dates, places, BIC lighters, I wouldn't expect 100% accuracy from him or anyone writing about things that happened 50 years ago.
 
I would'nt be surprised if the book is more about Sherman than Bukowski. :wb:
The drawing on the cover is awful. The only reason it's there, is because Sherman's kid made it.
 
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I'm considering a new avatar. I know I've been a top hat volume knob for a long time, but there's a compelling image I just want to use...

sickbuk.jpg

Confident. Forward looking.
 
All I know is Mr. Sherman he really likes to type (see below), and apparently he is a "Pulitzer Prize nominee," meaning he never won the Pulitzer Prize, but the name looks good on his web site (the entry fee is $50 in case you're interested in going for your own Pulitzer nomination).

"Oh, I don't care who wins, it's such an honor just being nominated!"

I write a new short story every month [...] My last novel was 309 manuscript pages and I wrote it in 21 days. [...] I am working on a major series right now wherein each novel will run 1000 to 1200 pages. And, I plan to write 8 of them. [...] I have a number of other projects I'm passionate about, including a mainstream novel about a single divorced mom who raises an autistic son, and a private eye mystery series set in Branson [...] I have time and energy to write all of these books. But, I have no agent...

See, a lot of typing. Now where have I heard that "wrote the novel in 21 days" bit before...hmm...

I don't know about you, but I'd go for the Nobel Prize before the Pulitzer. I know, the cats at Nobel expect you to take the traditional route and come up through the minors, but the Pulitzer is a paltry $10,000, and the Nobel is s cool $1,500,000. So me, I'm going for Nobel. Plus, the King of Sweden hands you the medal, and I have a bone to pick with him.

But that's just me.
 
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apparently he is a "Pulitzer Prize nominee,"

and "his poetry is considered genius" says the blurb about him that i'm sure he didn't write.

pulitzer shmulitzer, give him that nobel already!
 
Well, literary prizes and genius recognition aside, I know I can't be the only one who can't wait to read his series of eight 1000+ page novels. My beach bag is going to be heavy!
 
A series of 8 1,000 plus page novels. Didn't L Ron Hubbard (or a team of hacks trading on his dubious reputation after his demise) do something like that? L. Ron's Sci-Fi epic was 10 novels long. The team of hacks wanted to send me review copies, but there was a catch. I had to join Scientology. Has Jory started a new religion?
 

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