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55th out of 185 books
—
173 voters
Pulp
Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer's seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, this novel demonstrates Bukowski's own brand of humour and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles.
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
May 31st 2002
by Ecco
(first published February 1st 1994)
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Mar 21, 2008
Jacob
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I used to have a poster of this hanging in my hallway. It was a color reproduction of the cover. A girlfriend bought it for me. This was years ago. I was much younger and more serious. I would go for long walks in the town I lived in. I would try to write books. I would read Bukowski and I would order books on the internet and wander around and try to write books and look at my Charles Bukowski poster and sit at my typewriter and go to work and ride my bike and not really get anything done.
"'This whole thing is a bad senseless dream,' I said" (200).
That about sums it up; except it isn't bad. It's not good either. I felt like Bukowski was just playing a joke on his readers the whole time, like "hey, let me just write some outlandish fiction with an absurd, nonsensical plot and someone will publish it and lots of people will read it. And I'm going to do that because I can." And he did. And he makes writing seem so easy. And this makes me think that I could write a book like this: si...more
That about sums it up; except it isn't bad. It's not good either. I felt like Bukowski was just playing a joke on his readers the whole time, like "hey, let me just write some outlandish fiction with an absurd, nonsensical plot and someone will publish it and lots of people will read it. And I'm going to do that because I can." And he did. And he makes writing seem so easy. And this makes me think that I could write a book like this: si...more
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This was a classic private eye novel, with some interesting twists. Similar writing style to Post Office, and another great character. Nick Belane is basically Sam Spade, you know, if Sam Spade were a huge drunk ass hole with a propensity to get in bar fights. Despite seeming to stumble through life drunk and betting on the ponies (very similar to Chinaski), Belane manages to solve pretty much any case that comes to him (especially the ones involving Lady Death and aliens). He solves cases by pi...more
Take away a noir detective's story, his class, his street smarts, and write an entire book without ever giving him a reason to live. Welcome to Nick Belane's world in "Pulp."
This is crime fiction that is just too real and too surreal at the same time. Do we ever really believe that someone can smoke a pack of cigerettes and drink a pint of whiskey every day and still look good enough to score a smoking hot femme fatale? We don't, and Burkowski never let's us pretend that Belane ever could. Bela...more
This is crime fiction that is just too real and too surreal at the same time. Do we ever really believe that someone can smoke a pack of cigerettes and drink a pint of whiskey every day and still look good enough to score a smoking hot femme fatale? We don't, and Burkowski never let's us pretend that Belane ever could. Bela...more
Jun 24, 2007
Colleen
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone with a good sense of humor and deep-seeded concern about why humanity is so focacta
The brilliantly constructed Nick Belane is the main character of this novel, and leads the reader through his life as an middle-age private dick in the seediest parts of Hollywood. Nick alternates between depression and euphoria in his own ego. He laments for humanity and himself, both of which he's convinced are heading down the drain faster than your dead goldfish. He's sensitive to the plights of bums and winos he passes on the streets. He sees a "box boy at the supermarket...packing my groce...more
Comprei Pulp despretensiosamente, só porque sempre quis ler Bukowski e nunca tinha visto nenhum título dele por aí, tão barato, dando sopa. Foram os R$ 15 mais bem gastos do semestre. Ok, daquele mês. Enfim. Além de ter gostado do estilo, Pulp vai direto ao assunto, é desnecessariamente violento e muito divertido. O melhor é que a história vai se tornando cada vez mais bizarra, chegando às raias da loucura, mas de repente alguma lucidez, alguns trechos, te dão um soco. O sonho de Belane no capít...more
Well I have finally ran across a Bukowski book I don't like. Cliche ridden detective story, (yes I realize that some of those cliches were put there intentionally, but still) and Bukowskis attempts at humor for the most part fall flat.
"It was a debilitating game. Just to get your shoes on in the morning was a victory."
Yeah, well, it all had to end sometime. What a book. Essentially some hardboiled, detective, noir-ish Bukowskian stuff. I guess some will say he lost it, and others will say he is hyped to high heavens (and I agree and disagree), and still others will call him a vulgar hack, or whatever else thing – the fact remains that all his novels and poems are eminently readable.
At some good points I had to laugh uncontrol...more
Yeah, well, it all had to end sometime. What a book. Essentially some hardboiled, detective, noir-ish Bukowskian stuff. I guess some will say he lost it, and others will say he is hyped to high heavens (and I agree and disagree), and still others will call him a vulgar hack, or whatever else thing – the fact remains that all his novels and poems are eminently readable.
At some good points I had to laugh uncontrol...more
For newcomers to the world of Charles Bukowski, be forewarned: Pulp (Ecco, 202 pages) is probably not the best place to start.
I say this, not because it doesn’t rank right up there with his other books, or because greener readers will fail to grasp the allusions to earlier work it contains, but rather because as his ultimate novel (completed months before his death) Pulp can easily be seen as Bukowski’s final farewell. In it, the aged author takes his readers on one last foray into familiar terr...more
I say this, not because it doesn’t rank right up there with his other books, or because greener readers will fail to grasp the allusions to earlier work it contains, but rather because as his ultimate novel (completed months before his death) Pulp can easily be seen as Bukowski’s final farewell. In it, the aged author takes his readers on one last foray into familiar terr...more
من با استعداد بودم يعني هستم. بعضي وقتها به دستهام نگاه ميكنم و فكر ميكنم ميتوانستم پيانيست بزرگي بشوم. يا يك چيز ديگر. ولي دست هام چه كار كرده اند؟ يك جايم را خارانده اند،چك نوشته اند، بند كفش بسته اند، سيفون كشيده اند و غيره. دستهايم را حرام كرده ام. همينطور ذهنم را.
صفحه 16
عكس را دوباره برگرداندم به كيفم. كمكم داشت وحشت برم ميداشت. چه مرگم بود؟ داشت از اين خانم خوشم مي امد؟ محتويات شكمش كه با بقيه فرقي نداشت. توي سوراخ دماغش هم پر مو بود. توي گوش هاش هم پر از چربي و كثافت. صفحه 39
منظورم اين ا...more
صفحه 16
عكس را دوباره برگرداندم به كيفم. كمكم داشت وحشت برم ميداشت. چه مرگم بود؟ داشت از اين خانم خوشم مي امد؟ محتويات شكمش كه با بقيه فرقي نداشت. توي سوراخ دماغش هم پر مو بود. توي گوش هاش هم پر از چربي و كثافت. صفحه 39
منظورم اين ا...more
Insomma, alla fine inchioda il culo a tutti.
La quarta di copertina vi avvisa subito: Bukowski gioca con un vecchio stereotipo e vi aggiunge la sua filosofia di lucido beone, il suo esistenzialismo da taverna e e un pizzico di cupa, autentica disperazione.
Volgaretto è volgaretto, ma se non lo fosse..non sarebbe Bukowski, credo. Uno dei libri più assurdi che io abbia letto di recente. Si mischia un po' di thriller dovuto alle indagini, uno sprazzo fantasy, condito dall'ironia di Bukowski. Insomma,...more
La quarta di copertina vi avvisa subito: Bukowski gioca con un vecchio stereotipo e vi aggiunge la sua filosofia di lucido beone, il suo esistenzialismo da taverna e e un pizzico di cupa, autentica disperazione.
Volgaretto è volgaretto, ma se non lo fosse..non sarebbe Bukowski, credo. Uno dei libri più assurdi che io abbia letto di recente. Si mischia un po' di thriller dovuto alle indagini, uno sprazzo fantasy, condito dall'ironia di Bukowski. Insomma,...more
It's a crazy noir'ish novel that was Bukowski's last. As always with CB his language is dry and to the point but somehow roguishly eloquent. At times throughout the novel you forget that he is writing a contemporary piece set in the 1990's. Nick the "best dick in L.A." Belane frequently sounds like Bukowski romancing himself back in his 20's and 30's. Lot's of "baby" and "doll" and slang from an earlier era in America. A story of mortality and the confusion of "why are we here" by a man who pass...more
Kurz vor seinem Tod hat Charles Bukowski diesen, damit natürlich seinen letzten, Roman fertig gestellt. Mit 73.
Die Handlung ist im Grunde recht einfach, wenn auch im Detail nachher etwas verquer. Der Ich-Erzähler, in diesem Fall mal nicht Hank Chinaski (der wird, wenn ich es richtig mitbekommen habe, nur einmal erwähnt), sondern Nicky Belane, ist 55, Alkoholiker, drei mal geschieden, Privatdetektiv, notorisch in Geldnot und Streitereien verwickelt. Als Privatdetektiv ist er nicht wirklich gut, l...more
Die Handlung ist im Grunde recht einfach, wenn auch im Detail nachher etwas verquer. Der Ich-Erzähler, in diesem Fall mal nicht Hank Chinaski (der wird, wenn ich es richtig mitbekommen habe, nur einmal erwähnt), sondern Nicky Belane, ist 55, Alkoholiker, drei mal geschieden, Privatdetektiv, notorisch in Geldnot und Streitereien verwickelt. Als Privatdetektiv ist er nicht wirklich gut, l...more
Not my favorite Bukowski novel (that honor goes to Ham On Rye), but Pulp is pretty enjoyable. It's got the same cynical, crude sense of humor as his older works, but this time instead of Henry Chinaski he inhabits a different drunken, pugilistic protagonist. Also there are aliens.
Even though the themes aren't too different in Pulp, there is this sense of mortality that's more obvious here than in his prior novels. This was his final work, after all, and he fell ill partway through writing it. H...more
Even though the themes aren't too different in Pulp, there is this sense of mortality that's more obvious here than in his prior novels. This was his final work, after all, and he fell ill partway through writing it. H...more
This book is a hilarious send up of hard boiled private i fiction. It is also quite prescient as it contains with in it a character known as Lady Death who stalks the first person narrator throughout. Bukowski died shortly after completing this novel.
Here's a passage I liked: "I needed a vacation. I needed 5 women. I needed to get the wax out of my ears. My car needed an oil change. I'd failed to file my income tax. One of the stems had broken off my reading glasses. There were ants in my apart...more
Here's a passage I liked: "I needed a vacation. I needed 5 women. I needed to get the wax out of my ears. My car needed an oil change. I'd failed to file my income tax. One of the stems had broken off my reading glasses. There were ants in my apart...more
Up until now I've been resisting the urge to grab this book simply because "uh I've never been into detective stuff and I don't want to be let down by one of my favourite authors of all time and space", yet I decided to take the risk. I wasn't let down, it was nothing like I was afraid it would be - generic is the one word this book simply can't be called (ridiculous, a bit weird, a bit harsh, a bit too real to be so unreal, one the other hand...).
I especially enjoyed the fact that the limits a...more
I especially enjoyed the fact that the limits a...more
This is my boyfriend's favorite book, I borrowed it from him because he really really wanted me to read it. I forced myself to get to page 50 before admitting defeat. I hate this book too much to get through all 200 pages of it. I could kind of see that he was going somewhere with it, and there was the occasional line that I thought was pretty interesting, but overall it was overly simple, randomly violent, vulgar, and just unappealing in general. It's not that I mind violence and vulgarity, I j...more
1 like · like · see review
Last novel by the big man, written at the end of his life, sick with cancer, while papa death was just over the horizon. Unlike anything else Buk wrote. A short novel, a hilarious spoof of hard-boiled 1930s American detective fiction, a la Raymond Chandler. The narrator, wise-cracking private dick Nick Belane, is Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe rolled into one. In this comic masterpiece Bukowski rakes over the threads of his life, trying, and hilariously failing, to make sense of it all. If you've...more
Jul 19, 2009
Hamid
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Hamid by:
danial
پیشنهاد نمیکنم. گویا قرار بوده هجویهای باشه بر رمانهای کارآگاهی. اما چیزی که من دیدم بیشتر سردرگمی و پراکندگی بود. نمیدونم چقدر میشه انداخت گردن مترجم. چون ترجمهی قبلیش از بوکفسکی -مجموعه شعر سوختن در آب غرق شدن در آتش- ترجمهی جالبی نبود. اما ضعف کتاب بیشتر از اون بود که بخواد فقط کار مترجم باشه. از بوکفسکی موسیقی آب گرم رو خونده بودم که خیلی دوست داشتم و یک سری شعر با ترجمهی یکی از دوستان وبلاگنویس، که اونا هم عالی بودن. اما این رمان هیچ راضیم نکرد
3 likes · like · see review
Si hay una frase que consiguió cautivarme y que describe de manera breve el espíritu de ‘Pulp’ es “Le voy a pillar el culo”. Esta última novela de Bukowski, publicada previamente a su muerte, no es más que un esperpento del género de novelas ‘pulp’ que afloró a comienzos del siglo XX. Una caricatura sarcástica de las novelas policíacas y de ciencia ficción con altas dosis de humor.
En ‘Pulp’, el detective Nick Belane (el mejor detective de Hollywood, como humildemente se autodescribe), nos cuenta...more
En ‘Pulp’, el detective Nick Belane (el mejor detective de Hollywood, como humildemente se autodescribe), nos cuenta...more
تا نیمه های عامه پسند، نمیتونستم کتابو کنار بزارم و این همراه با نیش باز و لذتی حاصل از طنز این داستان بود طنزی که کنش های شخصیت بلان در موقعیت های داستان از خودش ساطع می کرد و توصیفات ذهنی کاراکتر ها از سوی نیک بلان واقعا آدمو درگیر خط داستان می کنه
هرچند بنظرم این امتیاز از وسطای کتاب یه جورایی در حال نزوله .از یه جایی شخصیت ها و موقعیت ها میان و میرن ولی دیگه اون گیرایی ابتدای داستانو برای خواننده ندارن
و پایان داستان واقعا "افسرده م کرد" به نقل از بوکوفسکی
در کل کتاب برام اونقدر خوب بود که هالی...more
هرچند بنظرم این امتیاز از وسطای کتاب یه جورایی در حال نزوله .از یه جایی شخصیت ها و موقعیت ها میان و میرن ولی دیگه اون گیرایی ابتدای داستانو برای خواننده ندارن
و پایان داستان واقعا "افسرده م کرد" به نقل از بوکوفسکی
در کل کتاب برام اونقدر خوب بود که هالی...more
2 likes · like · see review
Cuatro adjetivos para describir el estilo de Bukowski: fresco, ameno, directo, honesto.
Al personaje Nick Belane le da flojera poner poses y ocultar o maquillar sus defectos, un investigador de 50 años que cada vez que se deprime empieza a filosofar. Solo estoy pasando el tiempo, dice Bleane, esperando, eso hacemos todos, esperando dormir, esperando despertar, esperando que algo suceda, debería haber sido filósofo para decirle a todos lo tontos que somos.
Un tipo en apariencia decadente pero fir...more
Al personaje Nick Belane le da flojera poner poses y ocultar o maquillar sus defectos, un investigador de 50 años que cada vez que se deprime empieza a filosofar. Solo estoy pasando el tiempo, dice Bleane, esperando, eso hacemos todos, esperando dormir, esperando despertar, esperando que algo suceda, debería haber sido filósofo para decirle a todos lo tontos que somos.
Un tipo en apariencia decadente pero fir...more
Pulp is the title of Charles Bukowski's final novel before his death in 1994. As huge Bukowski admire, i was excited to read his take on the detective "pulp" genre. He portrays himself as Private Detective Nick Belane, and we follow him as tries to solve four different cases. Between barroom brawls, and pulls from the bottle, Belane pushes on through a string mistaken identities, and confronts death head on. In my mind anything Bukowski writes is golden, but i will say of all his work this novel...more
It's not what one would expact from Bukowski. It is definitely his style but combined with the surreality of a goast city. Kind of sin citish noir, supernatural detective story (!?!) Who would have thought... And the irony here is that the novel is dedicated to.. bad writing.
As Garrett Mortin's review already states and I totally agree with "In my mind anything Bukowski writes is golden, but i will say of all his work this novel left me a bit unfulfilled. Pulp is not for the casual fan, this no...more
As Garrett Mortin's review already states and I totally agree with "In my mind anything Bukowski writes is golden, but i will say of all his work this novel left me a bit unfulfilled. Pulp is not for the casual fan, this no...more
"Pulp" es un juego de Bukowski con el lector, un ejercicio de poder en una historia descabellada sin un plot claro pero divertida. El protagonista, Nick Belane, es un antihéroe que manda a todo el mundo a la mierda, eso en mi libro, suena muy bien.
Para Nick, las más disparatadas circunstancias de la vida se le atraviesan cada vez que se sienta en su escritorio a relajarse con un trago y reflexionar de lo inútil que es la vida, hasta que suena el teléfono con un nuevo trabajo que llevar a cabo. A...more
Para Nick, las más disparatadas circunstancias de la vida se le atraviesan cada vez que se sienta en su escritorio a relajarse con un trago y reflexionar de lo inútil que es la vida, hasta que suena el teléfono con un nuevo trabajo que llevar a cabo. A...more
I'm not sure why I like reading Bukowski's low-life characters so much. I guess it's just plain fun and entertaining. Perhaps it represents a life that I would like to live...well, for a few days anyway. This story follows a couple weeks of the life of Nick Belane, the self-proclaimed "best dick in LA". (Private Detective that is.) He's constantly drinking, and seems to get in fights with every bar tender he orders from, while somehow stumbling upon the clues he needs for his cases. This one get...more
I avoided reading Pulp for a long time. The idea of a comedic, absurdist parody of pulp and mystery novels starring a non-Chinaski protagonist seemed silly. Yet surprisingly it works! All of Bukowski's misanthropy, wit, vulgarity, depression are there, just used in a different manner than his other novels. Much of the plot is ridiculous. A private eye, Nick Belane, comes across a serious of bizarre cases: a woman named Lady Death who believes that the author Celine is still alive, a man who beli...more
Pulp es la última novela que escribió Bukowski antes de morirse, el protagonista de esta historia es Nick Belane un detective privado de Los Ángeles, soez, adicto al alcohol y a las carreras de caballos,cuenta con tres matrimonios fallidos en su haber y en lineas generales es un perdedor, pero tiene pensamientos muy lúcidos, negativos y hasta filosóficos acerca de la vida.
La historia comienza con la llamada de una extraña mujer que quiere averiguar si un hombre parecido a Céline es o no es Célin...more
La historia comienza con la llamada de una extraña mujer que quiere averiguar si un hombre parecido a Céline es o no es Célin...more
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I was reading this book because I found it on a list of recommended books on the lecture I took in university. Therefore it seemed to be something essential to modern culture, but not the way I expected. There are lots of movies that doesn't have any meaning, and to go seemingly deeper they use horror and vulgarities, just to make "indie" impression. I don't honestly understand that.
Otherwise, if I hadn't had so big expectations reading "Pulp", I wouldn't write this opinion right now. It's not s...more
Otherwise, if I hadn't had so big expectations reading "Pulp", I wouldn't write this opinion right now. It's not s...more
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Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany on August 16, 1920, the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to New York City to become a writer. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to g...more
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“It wasn’t my day. My week. My month. My year. My life. God damn it.”
—
153 people liked it
“I mean, say that you figure that everything is senseless, then it can't be quite senseless because you are aware that it's senseless and your awareness of senselessness almost gives it sense. You
know what I mean?”
—
37 people liked it
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know what I mean?”
