Rifftrax Book Club: Book 2: Bukowski's "Women"

[bettertomorrowamy]

http://www.amazon.com/Women-Charles-Bukowski/dp/0876853904
   
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
 Not for the faint of heart, July 23, 2001
By    Saxon Kane "Sax" (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

First off, this book will offend people. It will probably offend you. You need to be offended. You need to be shaken out of your complacency. You need to be smacked upside the head with the crude and vulgar beauty of Bukowski's life and prose. You should get an injection of his drunken, debauched lifestyle. You should read this book.
This is the first Bukowski novel that I have read, on a recommendation from a friend. The man has a way with words. A true Hemingway in the way he gives insightful and penetrating descriptions of people, but never actually tells you what they are thinking. He is able to paint a deep character profile of all the many women in his life with a little dialogue and some crazy actions. Some may find it degrading towards women, but I don't feel that it is. Sure, he is sometimes crude, sometimes angry, sometimes insulting towards women, but he is equally so towards himself. If anything, I feel he shows the tragic sexual immaturity of both women and men. While his lifestyle may be on the extreme, and something that most of us have never even gotten close to, he demonstrates things that anyone who has been in a relationship can identify with.

All in all, I don't think Bukowski was writing a book about relationships that people would identify with. That is far too cheesy and mid '90s flaky for him. I think this was more just a painful self-evisceration. I think he was tearing himself open, and laughing about it, and proudly showing off his darkest, and also his most beautiful, thoughts, actions, and emotions.


Anybody who wants to join in can.  We're gonna read to page 75, and then discuss.

[Tripe]

Still need to get the book, but I'll do that this week

[bettertomorrowamy]

I've already read to where I said I'd stop.  It is a really quick read.

[Tripe]

Yeah I flipped through it at Borders, it's a bit like The Pure and the Impure

[anais.jude]

I am going to start reading it today. Chop Chop, Tripe!

[anais.jude]

Well, I guess I will be the first to post. I think this is going to be an interesting discussion for a single guy, a married guy, and a gal. A lot of the female readers of Chinaski accuse him of "hating" women. I certainly don't feel that way, but one could never accuse him of being a metrosexual.
Two things that did jump out at me. Chinaski comments on the social or intelligence) status of two different women, Selma  (the professor's wife on pg 32) and Nicole (the cultured world traveler). I got the feeling that fucking these types of women offer Chinaski self-empowerment. Let the record show, that I do the same thing.

[Tripe]

Well, I guess I will be the first to post. I think this is going to be an interesting discussion for a single guy, a married guy, and a gal. A lot of the female readers of Chinaski accuse him of "hating" women. I certainly don't feel that way, but one could never accuse him of being a metrosexual.
Two things that did jump out at me. Chinaski comments on the social or intelligence) status of two different women, Selma  (the professor's wife on pg 32) and Nicole (the cultured world traveler). I got the feeling that fucking these types of women offer Chinaski self-empowerment. Let the record show, that I do the same thing.

Bukowski = The Author of the Novel
Chinaski = The protagonist who is the proxy for Bukowski in the novel (and other novels)

Just so we're clear.


Also come on people it's good to do things in a group, and the books under $15.00 (even less from Amazon) plus part of being a member of the book club is the chance to have us all read a book of your choosing.

[anais.jude]

Bukowski = The Author of the Novel
Chinaski = The protagonist who is the proxy for Bukowski in the novel (and other novels)

Just so we're clear.

Duh

[Tripe]

it's just that you mentioned Chinaski's readers thinking he hates women, when that's actually a criticism that can be leveled at Bukowski.given the context of that sentence

[bettertomorrowamy]

Oh, don't chase away our 3rd member on semantics.  She's totally wrong, but don't rub it in.   

Also, I'd like to second Tripe's call for more people.  Come on!

I can already tell it will be more fun with anais.

[Tripe]

Incidentally the edition I'll be getting has a different cover so I'm not sure if the pagination is the same, 75 is the end of a chapter right?

[anais.jude]

no, the cahpter ends on 75.

Oh, don't chase away our 3rd member on semantics.  She's totally wrong, but don't rub it in.  

Whatever BTA. I noticed you haven't mentioned anything about the actual book yet!

[bettertomorrowamy]

I don't have this edition either.  I have the one that is yellow and has a woman's legs on it in white, red, and black.

[Tripe]

Ah ok, that's the edition I'm thinking of

[anais.jude]

I have read to page 75