Product Description

Inspired by DH Lawrence, Chekhov and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate, extreme and has attracted a cult following, while his life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote. This collection of short stories gives an insight into the dark, dangerous lowlife of Los Angeles that Bukowski inhabited. From prostitutes to classical music, Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture in his 'tales of ordinary madness'. These are angry yet tender, humorous and haunting portrayals of life in the underbelly of Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23854 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From the Back Cover
‘Not since George Orwell has the condition of being down-and-out been so well recorded’ New York Times

‘Takes you by the shoulders and shakes you until your teeth rattle’ The Times

In these ‘tales of ordinary madness’, Charles Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture, from prostitutes and the philosophy of Kant to despair and classical music, to create his modern dystopia. Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, John Fante and Hemingway, Bukowski’s writing is passionate, extreme and relentlessly realistic. These are angry yet tender, humorous and haunting portrayals of life in the underbelly of America.

Charles Bukowski was one of America’s best-known and most prolific writers. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971), Factotum (1975), Women (1978), and Pulp (1994) all available from Virgin Books.

About the Author
Born in 1920, Charles Bukowski became one of America's best-known writers. During his lifetime he published more than forty-five books of poetry and prose including the novels Post Office (1971), Factotum (1975), Women (1979) and Pulp (1994) all available from Virgin Books.

Customer Reviews

the best collection
I have read (as far as I know) all of Bukowski's stuff. I love a few of the poems but a lot of them drift over me. It is with the stories that he has won me over. All the novels (especially Post Office and Ham on Rye) are wonderful, but his writing is best suited to short stories (and I would say the novels Factotum and Women, great as they are, are basically a novelised series of short stories...) The best collections of short stories are The Most Beautiful Woman In Town and this one, with this one the more consistent. There are examples of the short story in this book that I firmly believe could not be bettered, enough to make you put the book down for a minute, just to think about what you've read, and just marvel at the sheer word-economical perfection, and how his incredible turn of phrase can sum up inner thoughts and philosophies with a paucity of words. As long as you're not easily offended, there is plenty here to blow you away.

Anything but Ordinary
In TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS Charles Bukowski does what very few can. He finds the poetry in real people who live miserable lives in miserable conditions, mostly by their own doing. There is very little to recommend in these characters. Like Bukowski, most of them are unemployed drunks, dirty old men, sexual degenerates, and morally stripped souls. They form a subculture that perpetuates and sustains itself as long as the liquor keeps flowing (and it does), the women keep giving (and they do ... and do), and the men continue indulging (and they do ... and do ... and do). And yet, the reader is transfixed. For better or worse (usually worse), the reader chooses to enter Bukowski's world, takes a perverse delight in the goings-on, lingers and tarries, knowing that he or she can escape from the pits of hell at will, revisiting when the urge strikes. Better yet, there is no hangover in the morning. TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS is a collection of short stories, united by themes of desperation, loneliness, dead-end jobs, sexual perversion, and a need for real connection in an alienated, disturbed world. In these stories there is truly something of the profane and sacred, irreverent and holy, indifferent and feeling. The stories stay with one long after the reading is over. Bukowski's writing style is as nonconforming as his person. He doesn't always adhere to the rules of syntax, but this only serves to visibly, or tangibly, underscore the more abstract originality of the stories and situations themselves. Bukowski isn't for everyone. The writing is fierce, sexually explicit, unforgiving, and yet so totally true to the characters and their lives that it never seems overdone, affected, false. Through his words, Bukowski manages to transform the ordinary into something great.

I consider this book a psychic litmus test.
I recently loaned this book to my girlfriend. I haven't gotten a review from her yet, but if she likes it, I just may marry her. This is the best of all of Bukowski's great works. The words are so powerful and prophetic they have driven me to drink on several occasions. This book illustrates Bukowski in his best medium, the short story. A .45 To Pay the Rent is beautiful, and Animal Crackers in my Soup blew me away. READ THIS BOOK!