| The Most Beautiful Woman in Town Contributor(s): Bukowski, Charles (Author) |
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ISBN: 0872861562 ISBN-13: 9780872861565 Publisher: City Lights Books OUR PRICE: $14.36 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 1983 Annotation: These mad immortal stories, now surfaced from the literary underground, have addicted legions of American readers, even though the high literary establishment continues to ignore them. In Europe, however (particularly in Germany, Italy, and France where he is published by the great publishing houses), he is critically recognized as one of America's greatest living realist writers. Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany in 1920 and brought to America at the age of two. Eighteen or twenty books of prose and poetry, Bukowski, after publishing prose in Story and Portfolio, stopped writing for ten years. He arrived in the charity ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital, hemorrhaging as a climax to a ten year drinking bout. Some say he didn't die. After leaving the hospital he got a typewriter and began writing again-this time, poetry. He later returned to prose and gained some fame with his column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man. After 14 years in the Post Office he resigned at age 50, he says, to keep from going insane. He now claims to be unemployable and eats typewriter ribbons. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Short Stories (single Author) - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 83021032 |
| Physical Information: 0.79" H x 5.39" W x 7.96" (0.67 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Mad, immortal stories now surfaced from the literary underground. Charles Bukowski's stories have addicted legions of American readers, even though the high literary establishment continues to ignore them. In Europe, however (particularly in Germany, Italy, and France where he is published by the great publishing houses), he is critically recognized as one of America's greatest realist writers. In Bukowski's trademark semi-autobiographical short prose style, he addresses recurrent themes such as Los Angeles bar culture, alcoholism, gambling, sex, and violence. Many of the stories contain elements of fantasy and surrealism. Stories contained in The Most Beautiful Women in Town include: Kid Stardust on the Porterhouse; Life in a Texas Whorehouse; Six Inches; The Day We Talked About James Thurber; The Copulating Mermaid of Venice, Calif; and A Drinking Partner among many others. Collections such as The Most Beautiful Woman in Town . . . showcase Bukowski's impressive narrative and creative abilities in stories that most often take place in bars and dingy apartments but are not simply about sex and alcohol. They're about staying alive in a world where the only choice for the majority of us is to face a firing squad in an office every day--the post office, in Bukowski's case--or maintain a commitment to creativity as we struggle to pay for food and a meager place to live.--Adam Perry, Santa Fe Reporter |