The best books by Bukowski attract many fans of his work, as well as those who are just starting to get acquainted with his talent. This is a famous American journalist and prose writer, a vivid representative of the so-called dirty realism. In his bibliography there are more than 200 stories, 6 novels and several dozens of poetry books. In the texts one can often find obscene language, among writers the image of a womanizer, an alcoholic and a brawler is firmly entrenched in him.
Features of creativity
According to the best books of Bukowski, you can trace the main features of his work. Most of his works are autobiographical. At the same time, loneliness, classical music, and alcoholism remained the main topics throughout the literary career. Often, writers were inspired by memories of scenes from their own childhood, sex, madness, and horse racing.
However, the writer denied that he describes obscenity in his best books. Charles Bukowski claimed that he reveals the unsightly side of life that he himself lived. He often did not have enough money for the necessities.
One of the main tenets of his work is simplicity. Modern poetry depressed him with his falsehood, so he sought to express his own thoughts as clearly as possible. “Dirty realism”, to which most of Bukowski’s best books belong, can be described as works in which there is maximum saving of words, a lot of dialogs, no reasoning at all, the meaning is dictated by the content.
"The most beautiful woman in the city"
It is the stories that are often included in the list of the best books of Charles Bukowski. Books, consisting of several unrelated stories, he himself loved. Therefore, the review should begin with the collection "The Most Beautiful Woman in the City", which was published in 1983. It has about 30 stories on a variety of topics.
You will find the best Bukowski books with descriptions in this article. This collection contains semi-autobiographical notes of the author, as well as stories with a completely fictional plot. The subjects of most of them are typical for the writer - this is loneliness, sex, violence, alcohol, games. There are elements of fantasy and surrealism.
Each story has a unique and entertaining plot. For example, from a story that gave the name to the collection, the reader learns about an extraordinary young lady named Cass. She commits suicide by cutting her throat.
In the Swastika story, Adolf Hitler abducts an unnamed US president when everyone has long considered him dead. He undergoes plastic surgery and holds the post of President of America, sending the current head of state to a madhouse. In a six-inch first-person short story, the protagonist marries a girl who turns out to be a witch. She reduces it to a height of 6 inches and has sex with him, pushing the young spouse into her penis. Only by killing his tormentor does he manage to regain his usual appearance.
Many researchers consider this collection to be one of Bukowski’s best rated books.
"Notes of the old goat"
In 1969, the writer publishes another collection of short stories - Notes of the Old Goat. It consists of short stories and essays that Bukowski wrote for the Open City newspaper from San Francisco from 1967 to the mid-80s. These works were published weekly in the author’s column.
The main theme here is alcoholism, sex and gambling. The presentation style itself is rude; there are many physiological details in the works.
In many stories one can meet Bukovsky's contemporaries - Kerouac, Cassidy, Burroughs, politicians - Nixon, Kennedy, Humphrey are mentioned. These short stories brought glory to Bukowski.
"Post office"
The best books of Bukowski should include most of his novels. In 1971, he published in many ways an autobiographical work that brings him fame throughout America. In the novel "The Post Office," the hero of our article describes an employee of the US Postal Service named Henry Chinaski, who is systematically drunk because of what is happening in his life.
The protagonist of this novel, in fact, is the alter ego Bukowski, who himself worked at the post office for more than ten years. The book was a great success in Europe.
In reviews of Bukowski’s best books, critics often noted the writer’s amazing style. To many, he resembled versification. His humor was characterized as smart and cynical.
Factotum
In the factotum novel, as in most works of the major Bukowski genre, the reader continues to follow the fate of Henry Chinaski. This time he goes to military service in the American army during the Second World War. Constantly changing one work for another, he learns a lot about the world around him.
The novel is called the Latin term, which means a responsible proxy who carries out all kinds of instructions.
It is believed that this is one of the most revealing novels of a prose writer. He describes how his main character leaves his parents, hoping to become a real and famous writer. But he has to live very poorly. He constantly gets a job as a laborer, having difficulty making ends meet. A large number of hopeless and boring posts are flashed before the reader, which Chinaski changes during the day, and at night he indulges in sound drinking. In parallel, he is trying to fix all this on paper, not abandoning the hope of someday becoming a writer.
"Ham Bread"
“Ham Bread” is another Bukovsky’s autobiographical novel, which was released in 1982. It tells the story of growing up through the lead character Henry Chinaski in Los Angeles. A young man enters adulthood during the Great Depression.
Interestingly, Bukowski refers the reader to another famous American novel about the problems of growing up and becoming a character - Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
In reviews, critics noted that the main conflict of this work lies in the conflict of the protagonist's love for people and the world with the total dislike he experiences in response.
At the very beginning of this work, a one-year-old child tries to hide under the table, fleeing from scary and dangerous adults. So he will continue to go through life, constantly encountering obscenities, alcohol and fights. The author tries to demonstrate the bright sides that are in his hero, especially at the beginning of his life, but is afraid to present it in all its glory even to the reader. As if fearing that a man who showed his love for the world would be crushed right there.
"Waste paper"
"Waste paper" (1994) - the last novel by Bukowski. He is the only one not autobiographical.
It tells the story of a private investigator who regularly encounters fantastic circumstances in his work.
Critics believed that the writer, having exhausted stories from his life, decided to experiment with the new genre.