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Top 16 Best Charles Bukowski Books Updated 03 /2024

Dennis Lehane
  Mar 29, 2024 1:09 AM

Here we ranked and reviewed the top 16 Best Charles Bukowski Books that are highly rated by 17,094 customers.

 


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    City Lights Publishers
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Best Charles Bukowski Books

Henry Charles Bukowski was a well-known author, poet, and short-story writer. His books "Post Office," "Factotum," "Women," and "Ham on Rye" made him a huge star. If you read the magazine Story at age 24, you can read Buk's first short story. It was called "Aftermath of a Long Rejection Slip." Writing about everyday American life, alcohol, relationships with women, and work problems was what he did. Even though Buk is a great author, we can't compare him to Walt Whitman, for example. Bukowski's writing style was different, and he knew that he wasn't a great author. He also wrote a book called "Pulp" about bad writing. So, check out our top ten list of some of Bukowski's best books. You'll want to read some of them.

Hollywood

"Hollywood" is a book about a film director who wants Chinaski, the main character, to write a screenplay. Bukowski tells us a story about how he wrote and made the movie "Barfly." Also, he talked about how he felt about all the things that were going on around him from the start.

The author shows us a very sarcastic part of the movie-making process. As for his writing style, you'll love this book if you're a fan of his or want to read an honest book about Hollywood. After reading the book, if you haven't seen the movie yet, then you should watch it. This will make it even more enjoyable. Mickey Rourke is the main star of the movie, and he is very good at his job.

Pulp

This is the last book that Charles Bukowski wrote. It is called "Pulp." It came out in 1994, soon after he died. Buk takes his readers on one last ride into well-known areas like death, madness, and sex, but he also makes them more interesting in unique ways, which is what makes this book so interesting. "Pulp" is a book about bad writing that Buk wrote. As a detective story, it's about a rough man who solves his cases by waiting them out.

A fictional character named Raymond Chandler is made up by Bukowski to make a point about himself. Chandler is an author from Los Angeles who writes stories set in the city, just like Bukowski does. Besides that, Buk also made his usual amount of violence and cynicism even more extreme, because he knew he was going to die very soon. People don't know that a punk band called "Alkaline Trio" got ideas for this song from the book "Pulp."

Factotum

"Factotum," Bukowski's second novel, is the book that best shows off his world. The story takes place around World War II, and it tells the story of Buk's alter-ego, Henry Chinaski, who has been turned down for military service and can't find a job. Work that won't get in the way of his favorite thing to do: writing.

So, Chinaski moves around a lot and changes jobs a lot, but he always has trouble because he can't stay long anywhere. His trip is filled with low-moral women, dirty motel rooms, and drunken fights. Bukowski's "Factotum" is a great book that also had a movie made about it called the same thing.

Women

Once again, Buk wrote a great book, "Women," with Henry Chinaski as the main character, of course. During this one, Buk talks about Chinaski's later years, when he had already become a well-known author and poet. However, he couldn't stay stable on both fronts: work and love. So even in his 50s, he was able to keep up with his irresponsible way of living life to the fullest, which included a lot of hangovers and a lot of "ladies of the night."

According to what he said, Chinaski doesn't like every new woman he meets. If you read his other two novels, Factotum and Post Office, this is a follow-up story to them. The woman on the cover of Bukowski's book was drawn by the author himself.

The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills

"The Days Run Away Over the Hills" is one of Charles Bukowski's first and maybe best poems. As a gift, he wrote it for his first love, Jane. He also showed readers a more emotional side of his soul.

He made a book where he wrote heartfelt things for Jane. At the same time, we can feel his sadness because Jane drank herself to death. They show how Buk hides his soft side under the rough older man's mask.

Notes Of a Dirty Old Man

If you look at "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," you can see that Bukowski wrote for an underground newspaper called "Open City." Many different articles were written by him about how he thought about the world in those days.

Bukowski was writing about a lot of different things, and he didn't hide from things like murder, abuse, rape, alcoholism, and many other things that people don't like. This book has a lot of different kinds of short stories, some of which are very real and others very strange and crazy.

The Last Night of the Earth Poems

If you love Buk, "The Last Night of Earth" is likely to be your all-time favorite poetry book. In his 70s, he wrote it while giving his readers a glimpse into his past in a unique way of writing. The book is about 400 pages long and has a lot of poems in it, including the famous "Bluebird."

If you click on the video, you can hear a lovely reading of "Bluebird." All in all, this is a great collection of everything that Charles Bukowski wrote, from his sharp sense of humor to his most honest confessions.

Love Is a Dog From Hell

Love Is a Dog from Hell is a book of poetry that was written by Bukowski in the mid-seventies. It shows how he wrote poetry in a unique way. Also, we think this book is great because it has some of his best poetry in it.

Buk used a simple writing style because he was clear and didn't use a lot of words to describe things. Also, this quote from "Love Is a Dog from Hell" supports his simple style: "It's easy to be simple, if you let it."

Ham On Rye

Bukowski wrote "Ham on Rye" in 1982, which is a semi-autobiographical book that he wrote about himself. Between 1920 and 1941, the story is about Buk's alias Henry Chinaski. It starts with Chinaski's first memories and then tells us about how his father was cruel to him.

When he wants Henry to go to a private school, he sends him there. He doesn't want him to be like the other rich, spoiled kids there. At the same time, Buk was very accurate when he talked about Henry's terrible acne. Anyhow, Chinaski had a lot of problems with his family and couldn't fit in with society, which made him an outsider and led him to drink alcohol to deal with his problems.

Post Office

It was Bukowski's first book, "Post Office" from 1971, and it's likely his best. A lot of people know him because of this English language classic that he wrote in 1971 when he was 50 years old. He wrote a story about his alter-ego Henry Chinaski, who works at the Los Angeles Post Office, and how he ends up getting hired.

"It began as a mistake." These are Buk's unique-styled opening lines to the book. They say that Henry Chinaski has been a postal worker for more than a decade and that he has lost a lot of time. He talks about Chinaski's moves from place to place, how he gets through life with alcohol and women, again with a weird sense of humor. If you haven't read "Post Office," we think you should, because it's a classic.


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