The Impotence of Being Ernest: Coast, November 1970 (1 Viewer)

Pogue Mahone

Officials say drugs may have played a part
When Bukowski references Hemingway, a lot of times he also references a review he did of Hemingway's last book. I assumed it appeared in the L.A. Free Press, but I also assumed everyone on the forum had read it but me. So, I have to admit to being a little bit smitten about sharing this find. Sure, we find new poems from time to time, but not prose like this.

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Good to read, thanks for posting it (and finding it).

I couldn't help but feel the second paragraph was a bit prophetic. In fact, you could change two words and...

So here, in PULP, is his last at bat. From beyond the grave. What a chance for drama! But Mr. Bukowski took a called 3rd strike, lying down. Well, he has done enough and he's about as embedded in American literature, and in us, as anybody can get. He quit with a high lifetime average; let's give him that.

Just struck me as funny. What can I say.
 
It took me quite a while to realize it reads "Impotence," not "Importance," in the title.

Good catch. I don't think I can edit the title.

So here, in PULP, is his last at bat. From beyond the grave. What a chance for drama! But Mr. Bukowski took a called 3rd strike, lying down. Well, he has done enough and he's about as embedded in American literature, and in us, as anybody can get. He quit with a high lifetime average; let's give him that.

Point taken -- I thought the same thing. But let us remember that Buk was primarily a poet, and he hit a home run with "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" in 1992. (Assuming all the poems were written in the 1989 - 1992 time period).
 
Buk stretches a double into a bases clearing triple here. Islands is a fine example of posthumous published work and why they were not published prehumously. These works are usually edited by family, in this case Hem's wife (thank god he didn't have a Martin). The book reads like three separate novels that seem to fit together but don't. Like Buk, I love Hemingway at his best, and I found certain segments of Islands to be among Hem's best writing. As Buk says: Hem knows his wars, his drinks, his food, the sea, etc...The dialogue beginning after Roger and the son's unresolved exit is some of the best dialogue in any of Hem's published work. But the pieces don't fit together well enough to work as a novel. I think Hem knew this which is why it was not published during his lifetime.
 

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