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Women

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 18,729 ratings · 956 reviews

Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintai...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published February 27th 2007 by Ecco (first published 1978)

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Jul 18, 2008 RatsRGods rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Cher and Bette Midler

Recommended to RatsRGods by: Sigfried and Roy

I discovered Charles Bukowski while in Las Vegas, in December 2000.
My dad thought it was a good idea to take his 19 year old daughter to Vegas. Because I LOVE watching everyone else gamble and drink while I can't participate!
To be fair, we saw some really good shows (Blue Man Group and Mystere). And the buffets were exciting (Paris was wonderful).
And ! I did get screamed at by a lady on the bus that goes up and down the strip. She looked like Mimi from the Drew Carey show. Well, she dropped her...more

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Jun 15, 2007 Ryan McDonald rated it 5 of 5 stars

Misogyny, misogyny, misogyny....that's all everyone sees. Few see the true character of Hank, only the brutal sexual descriptions, the words beginning with "C" and his practice of "mounting" whatever drunken soul may have wandered into his piss-stained bed. This is one of the most American novels I have ever read. It tells the story of the common man, overburdened by the memories of his abusive youth, beleagured by his own unsightly appearance and wallowing in the depths of alcoholism. Few feel...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Colelea rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: hipster dudes with creepy mustaches

boooooorrrrrr-iinnnnnnnnnnnnngggg

I loved Bukowski as a young teenager and now that I go back and re-read I can only imagine that I enjoyed the truth and rawness at that age when I was getting lied to everywhere abt. the relations between men and women.

NOW the misogyny is effing boring. Like the crap I see every effing day. I find it interesting that some people find it so shocking because I know at least 10 men that feel this way abt. women. OVER IT. Don't wanna read abt. it now.

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Jun 13, 2012 Giulia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Non ci sono spoiler. Che spoiler volete che ci siano: si tratta di Chinaski che si tromba un sacco di donne. Ho nascosto il tutto perché il linguaggio usato e le cose scritte forse potrebbero offendere qualcuno. Spero di non essere troppo volgare o truce. Se non vi piace la “volgarità”, se vi disturba, per favore NON leggete. Non si tratta di una recensione e nemmeno di un commento. Sono solo alcuni degli appunti che ho buttato giù mentre leggevo il libro. Sono sconclusionati.

Appunti di lettura:...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Lydia Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

The leading crazy lady's name is Lydia. I can relate. Charles Bukowski has a way of betraying you and making you laugh in spite of yourself; disgusting you and then melting your heart with one tender and insightful paragraph you do not expect, at a moment that doesn't seem appropriate in context to that which he is speaking. It is impossible to love Bukowski and impossible not to love him. This book is just a delight, if you can absorb it. He is mushy soft at his core.

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Feb 12, 2008 Eileen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the words of a reviewer on Amazon, "First off, this book will offend people. It will probably offend you." This book hit a little too close to home (you could say I've met and loved this man in real life). At first, reading it was easy; the language is not complex and the material is the definition of "page-turner" - sex, love, drugs, alcohol - in raw, unapologetic realism. And then around page 200 it all became too much. Chinaski does another poetry reading, beds (and then rapes, though stra...more

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Jul 15, 2012 Demetri Broxton-Santiago rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Someone looking for something wild and very different

This book is CRAZY!!! I cannot believe I read the entire thing in 3 days. You can't put it down. In fact, it made it's rounds through at least 8 people I know of, and it's probably still making the rounds. Everyone had the same experience. You start it and Bukowski goes into the most sexist, vulgar, repulsive descriptions of the main character's relationship to women, but something makes you keep reading. I stopped at several points wondering, "why the hell am I reading this?", yet I went on. Th...more

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May 26, 2008 Katherine M rated it 3 of 5 stars

I once told a friend I went back to reading Bukowski like an abusive boyfriend. His raw snapshot of life reminds me more of the worn couch sitting decaying in my neighbors yard than the fresh writing style of Kerouac's that I love. His misogyny is infuriating, to say the least. Yet, no one is perfect. Bukowski is vulgar but intelligent. His women are disposable but his portraits of life still retain such clarity I know he must care about these women a little bit. In some way. Right?

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Mar 03, 2013 Arda rated it 2 of 5 stars

It was love at first letter with Bukowski. This was months ago. I read the letter he wrote in ’86, (posted at “Letters of Note” in 2012,) and I just knew. I had a thing for that letter, and wanted to devour the words of the man who wrote it.

I gulped down “Women” quickly because that was the type of book it was. Reading Bukowski requires the willingness to loosen up. It is not easy to read this stuff through an ideological, feminist, or moral lens. This man does not bother to brush up his charact...more It was love at first letter with Bukowski. This was months ago. I read the letter he wrote in ’86, (posted at “Letters of Note” in 2012,) and I just knew. I had a thing for that letter, and wanted to devour the words of the man who wrote it.

I gulped down “Women” quickly because that was the type of book it was. Reading Bukowski requires the willingness to loosen up. It is not easy to read this stuff through an ideological, feminist, or moral lens. This man does not bother to brush up his character or polish his words. Whether we like it or not, we are forced to watch Chinaski throw up and throw his seeds in the fleshes of passing women. Chinaski is self-described as a “dirty old man”, “selfish, with deep pleasure”. He is a raging alcoholic, and, really, he is simply not bothered.

And so it goes. The more I read, the more Bukowski's appeal started to fade before my eyes. This possibly correlates with his own life-experience and through his sharing of this reality: “Human relationships didn't work anyhow. Only the first two weeks had any zing, then the participants lost their interest. Masks dropped away and real people began to appear: cranks, imbeciles, the demented, the vengeful, sadists, killers. Modern society had created its own kind and they feasted on each other. It was a duel to the death--in a cesspool.”

The buried sense of uneasiness on how easy it is to break up, let go and be with someone else adds to the depth of this book, and the book does have depth. Perhaps the easiest way to describe it would be through referencing Milan Kundera’s book title: “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. While reading Bukowski's “Women”, I started to wonder about the meaning-of-it-all, but had to quickly stop myself from this questioning, and keep on reading. It means nothing. In the words of a friend of mine, "life means nothing and everything, but mostly nothing.” Bukowski emphasizes on the nothingness. He is ‘not wholesome in the sense of wholesome is as wholesome does’: “I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn’t have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. It didn’t make for an interesting person. I didn’t want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone. On the other hand, when I got drunk I screamed, went crazy, got all out of hand. One kind of behavior didn’t fit the other. I didn’t care.”

For the most part, this book was not rich in context. I wanted to love it, but dare I say: I was underwhelmed. I had this recurring notion that Bukowski was just trying so hard to look as though he was not trying so hard. It seems as though he wanted to give the impression that he couldn't care less about other writers, films, TV, culture, none of it really, and that he wasn't bothered by what people thought about his writing. On the other hand, there are all these self-compliments his characters chip in that disprove his indifference. The constant referrals he makes about himself being “one of the best writers”, and that he has “raw writing”, “humor”, impeccable ease in jumping from one girl to another and “fucking all these women” all start to become less and less amusing.

This book, albeit playful, could be helpful for a case-study on polygamy. It is also acute in conveying the harsh economic realities that the Americans of that generation had been going through. Additionally, it could assist women of all generations to understand the true composition of jerks, assholes and dirty old men, and know when to run for their lives if they are in a relationship with one.

Was I disappointed with this book? Unfortunately, yes. Would I read more Bukowski? The man is shameless and unbothered by it, but he sticks to his guns and has his own style. Give me another book by him, right now, and yes, yes I will.
(less)

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Mar 10, 2012 V. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-reviewed-2012

The style is pretty much the usual: simple, plain, occasionally vulgar. If you like his prose (which I do) it's an enjoyable read, often funny, always honest (if a little one-sided) and as scathing about himself as he is about everyone else.

What made this book a little less interesting than the others of hid I've read is that he's become something of a minor celebrity at this point in his life (the fictional Chinaski pretty much mirrors Bukowowski's real life) so the stream of women that pass th...more

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Feb 28, 2008 Baiocco rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Writers (in quotation marks)?

I read the first 9 pages of Bukowski's Women and realized I wasn't going to learn anything new about women from this alcoholic egotist. I read the next 300 pages because he's funny as shit!

I've never read anything by Bukowski, save for the poem about the Blue Bird which I really liked and transcribed on napkins for some reason, from my friend's book collection when I was drunk because I didn't want to buy the collection. Then I realized you can find these things on the Interweb, but that's kin...more I read the first 9 pages of Bukowski's Women and realized I wasn't going to learn anything new about women from this alcoholic egotist. I read the next 300 pages because he's funny as shit!

I've never read anything by Bukowski, save for the poem about the Blue Bird which I really liked and transcribed on napkins for some reason, from my friend's book collection when I was drunk because I didn't want to buy the collection. Then I realized you can find these things on the Interweb, but that's kinda the story of my life. Point being...I'm an idiot, but also, I'm not really a Bukowski Guy. I mean, great, he wrote poems, he fucked lonely, psychotic chicks, he drank booze, he worked in a Post Office, I get it. So did my uncle, but I'm not really a "My Uncle" Guy either. Where did this whole Bukowski/Chinaski mythology come from? I read Women because since I've moved back to NY a slew of people (mostly hipsters and lonely psychotic chicks) have waxed poetic about him, so I figured I'd give him a chance. And to tell you the truth, it wasn't so bad (Women). I couldn't imagine reading a lot of his books, or, ya know, pilgramaging to his grave, but Women was alright, if not a little repetitive. I kept it in my bathroom and breezed through a few pages every time I took a shit, which I personally felt helped set the mood for his prose.

Two things: Besides calling bullshit on the Bukowski Legend/Whorship I want to call bullshit on the his sexual prowess. Now, it is certainly possible that he came into this revolving door type of heaven-position (no pun intended) of constantly getting young girls to sleep with him, but this book is so repetitive it can be boiled down to one formula: wake-> puke-> drink get letter from nubile young horny girl -> fuck or don't get it up -> puke-> sleep -> puke. Actually its a lot like the Anthony Keidis autobiography Scarface which I reviewed, save for the heroin. Junkies and alcoholics don't really switch things up too much, and they are oblivious to how repetitive their whole shtick is. Whats that? Narcissist's blind spot. Yeah.

At least Henry Miller changes up the sex a little when he writes.

Other thing: The most interesting insight in this book is when Bukowski writes about Ernest Hemmingway, saying that he was too serious and that life was a total war for him, with no room to have fun or dance. I agree (I'm not really a Hemmingway Guy either), but it's wierd because while reading Women I couldn't help drawing comparisons between Bukowski and Hemmingway, in prose style but also in how they both pretentiosly wax about The Writer, and The Nobility of Writing, and The Duty of it all, yada, yada, yada. That kind of writing, in my opinion, is some of Bukowski's most embarassing moments in prose, but he seems genuine and like an earnest believer in what he's saying, so I won't ever really knock that. But I do think if Hemmingway embraced his inner alcoholic instead of blowing his brains out, he may have been able to enjoy his fame, live off it, and fuck a lot of young chicks in his twilight years in tribute to it...just like Bukowski.

They are two sides of the booze coin. (less)

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Feb 03, 2008 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was about 85% done and then... I just put it down. It was beginning to seem like a waste of time and energy. So many women, so much booze, and one stinking degenerate to tell me about it all.

But then I came across an LA Times Book Review of "Pleasure of the Damn: Poems, 1951-1993" (which was going to released the following week). The reviewer said some really harsh things about Bukowski and his place in the literary pantheon in LA. After that, I was inspired to finish reading this boo...more

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Jul 24, 2008 Colleen rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Readers.

If Pulp is Bukowski's intellectual candy, then Women is a main course. His prose is still wonderfully simple and quirky as seen in the last few lines of the novel:
"... I opened the door and walked out on the porch. There was a strange cat out there. He was a huge creature, a tom, with a shining black coat and luminous yellow eyes...
I opened him up a can of Star-Kist solid white tuna. Packed in spring water. Net wt. 7 oz."

As with Pulp, I relished that his prose relished and even mocked the mund...more

If Pulp is Bukowski's intellectual candy, then Women is a main course. His prose is still wonderfully simple and quirky as seen in the last few lines of the novel:
"... I opened the door and walked out on the porch. There was a strange cat out there. He was a huge creature, a tom, with a shining black coat and luminous yellow eyes...
I opened him up a can of Star-Kist solid white tuna. Packed in spring water. Net wt. 7 oz."

As with Pulp, I relished that his prose relished and even mocked the mundane details of our lives.

Unlike Pulp, I never fell in love with the main character Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski. The private dick in Pulp was easier to love, since the setting and plot of the novel was ridiculous. He seemed like the sanest one in town. Chinaski also lives an unusual life. A long-time night-shift worker in a post office, he became a poet at the age of fifty. He pumps phenomenal amounts of alcohol and other less-than-healthy substances into his iron gut every night, wakes at noon, and writes. He is paid to travel all over the country for poetry readings, where his schtick is to get drunk on stage. Meanwhile, the thematic thread tying the loosely-structured novel together is his multiple affairs with women. He describes their sexual acts in detail, everyone cheats on everyone, and Chinaski can't get enough. This setting was too real for me to distinguish Chinaski as the stable one. In fact, he rides the line between intrigue and disgust throughout the novel.

However, after a hundred pages of writing margin comments like "I guess poets can be shallow pigs. I'm not sure I like him," for the first hundred pages, I found myself focusing on the analytical, romantic, alive way Chinaski navigates the world. It's a treat to see into his head. At one point, he muses that it is useful to know women so that you feel the pain of separation, and thereby come a little closer to understanding death. "Love was for guitar players, Catholics, and chess freaks," is another favorite quote of mine. This man is floundering in a scary, very real world. He is thrilled to finally be able to woo a woman into the bedroom. And, as the last line shows, despite all of his appalling behavior, he has compassion.

Read it. I'm sure you'll enjoy the challenge as much as I did.(less)

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Jan 20, 2008 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best thing about this book is that it is nothing it is not supposed to be. It is a telling of a sad lonely old man who knows he is not what he is supposed to be. It captures the self pity and destruction of a fictional writer who is very obviously a reincarnate of Bukowski. The story is forced forward only by the coming and goings of the women he meets, as I imagine Bukowski's own life was propelled. He doesn't sugar-coat these meetings. The sex is raw and disgusting and there is no love, on...more

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Jul 02, 2007 Mark Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

You can't be squeamish to read Bukowski. The man had the inimitable ability to make entertaining the aggrivations of every day life. This novel talks of his exploits with various women, including the one he eventually married.

He is not a misogynist; he merely tells the truth. Actually, I think Buk loved women but he never, ever pretended to understand them. And that's probably the wisest thing any man ever did.

I read this while having woman troubles of my own. Hey, it helped a lot. Especially s...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Nate Haskell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Bukowski's words are as easily read as room temperature butter is spread. There's a little poem to have him rolling over in his grave.

Good book; it goes through all the emotions one hardened, unapologetic old bastard can go through while meeting, greeting and in-the-sheeting dozens of writer-groupies and other misfit characters (read: normal people). Interestingly enough, it manages to hit home on a few cases of inner-turmoil.

Lydia was my favorite of the women. The joint-insanity between her a...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Anca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More or less an autobiography of Bukowski, this book seems just a long list of pornographic encounters of Hank Chinaski. The style of writing is simple, 'superficial', very American. What I took out of the book is the search for the perfect woman; the only problem is that every woman is 'perfect' in her own way, the more damaged - the more beautiful. Each one is worthy of at least a glass of wine and a good fuck. Women seem to be like drugs for Hank, source of pleasure and inspiration.
After rea...more

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Sep 28, 2007 Bryan Duffy rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Men on a power trip

This book degrades women to an extent so bad, that it is actually a page turner. You just want to see how much farther this drunk ass is going to go before you cant read anymore.

Some how I finished the book. I actually started feeling bad for the main character, Henry Chinaski (AKA CHARLES BUKOWSKI)

But really, it was just a book that I read out of curiosity. Keep it next to your toilet, that might be the most comfortable place to read it.

I dont really like Bukowski so my opinion here is worthle...more

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May 31, 2007 Juli rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: haveread

my very first Bukowski :)
everyone should give ol Hank Chinaski a try - I find that the world can pretty easily be divided into two kinds of women - those who find Buke misogynistic and those who want to go drinking with him. Obviously, I am of the latter. This is the book that got me into Black Sparrow Press, and made City Lights Bookstore a MUST SEE for me the first time i hit San Francisco.
oh and p.s. - Bukowski loved women, with all their many flaws. He failed to worship them, and that is jus...more

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May 20, 2013 Enrique rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had finished reading this book about 3 weeks from this date (5/20/2013) and I have to be honest. I enjoyed it and I also I hated it; it completely depressed me and I think I might have found some parallels in my own life and philosophy in these books, and that is not a good thing.
Charles Bukowski is a poet first and foremost. He writes about women, sex, drinking to excess, Isolation and deliberate routines he does, and about his inability to connect with the world and the people around him. H...more I had finished reading this book about 3 weeks from this date (5/20/2013) and I have to be honest. I enjoyed it and I also I hated it; it completely depressed me and I think I might have found some parallels in my own life and philosophy in these books, and that is not a good thing.
Charles Bukowski is a poet first and foremost. He writes about women, sex, drinking to excess, Isolation and deliberate routines he does, and about his inability to connect with the world and the people around him. He yearns for love, but does everything he can to destroy it when it comes his way,he is an alcoholic, addicted to sex, and a paranoid, jealous, selfish person. His view of women is so narrow, and shallow. He wants beautiful, young women so that he can share drinks with and for sex. He wonders out loud in his book why they leave, and spend parts of his book wanting them to, or predicting they will. It's really quite sad, as he would write about his "adventures" with a romantic disconnect that can only be achieved from a safe distance that we, as an audience, can have.
In his book, "Women," he continues his adventures in a narrative, through the eyes and liver of his made up alter ego, Henry Chinasky. This character that he has used in all his books as a way to write about himself from a very narcissistic, safe vantage point, walks through his book repeating the same mistakes over and over again with the women that come into his life. His alter ego is a poet as well, and he does public readings that are alcohol fueled, and people come to watch him for the spectacle that they are. He really is quite good, and you only have to youtube some of his readings to hear for yourself how powerful and seductive he could be, how simple his words are, but evocative and tragic not to mention emotionally dangerous. It's through his poetry and his books that he apparently has women that fall for him; they know his views about women and they come to him hoping to be wron and while this is happening in his book, you get this sense that this really did happen to him, and he is only using his alter ego to tell about these things. He describes Los Angeles, where he lived till the day hat he died, as a place with a bar in every corner, and people that can only connect through alcoholic nights. Still, this book is something to experience. It is funny and sarcastic, self deprecating at times. The women that come in and out of his life tend to be as self destructive as he is and there is a moral to the stories he tells, but I think that is up for debate, and completely in the eye of the beholder.
As the book progresses, his acts of fornication become more vividly written, and you can't help but feel really dirty. In one instance, he writes about the girl he is with and describes it in his head as "raping her" when he clearly isn't. still it's a telling part of his story, as he clearly is not interested in connecting with this girl in the way sex can connect those that want to be connected; instead, to Bukowsky/Chinaski, He is more interested in taking something from the women that is he with. He wants to take it and dirty it, have power over it. It can be a bit disturbing when it comes right down to it.
Ultimately; I think there was this sense of desperation in his writing as the book was being built, and it shows. I am not sure if I can really recommend it for that reason, but I have to say that as a cautionary story, or as a device to cleanse oneself, in the way that reality TV does to the masses by allowing a chance to see other people at their worst, and giving us a means to judge from a safe distance, Bukowski gives us this in his book. The worst part is how abruptly the book ends, not because you want more, but because you know that there is, and it's quite depressing. (less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Dorota Skrzypek rated it 5 of 5 stars

A few chapters in and I thought: Wow, someone read this book and created the show Californication. Brooding, alcoholic, sex-aholic writer, always trying to write, but mostly managing to get laid. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That's what they say anyway. And it is a great premise even though it isn't really about anything. Just a snapshot into this guy's life, which I can really appreciate since as a writer of a book series I often get asked: What is Sex, Life, & Hannah about?...more A few chapters in and I thought: Wow, someone read this book and created the show Californication. Brooding, alcoholic, sex-aholic writer, always trying to write, but mostly managing to get laid. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That's what they say anyway. And it is a great premise even though it isn't really about anything. Just a snapshot into this guy's life, which I can really appreciate since as a writer of a book series I often get asked: What is Sex, Life, & Hannah about? And I have a hard time answering that question; feel like a failure sometimes for not being able to answer that question in a way that might excite someone to buy it. "Just read Women by Bukowski, and if you like that, then you'll like my book series," I'll say next time. Except Hannah is neither a writer, nor an alcoholic (well, not really), nor a sex-aholic (not yet). But I digress.

I love memoir-style fiction. You get inside the mind of a person. You know what they're thinking and feeling when they're experiencing all the great and all the messed up stuff. You know what their motivations are, even if they seemingly don't have any. Maybe this is the voyeur in me. I have always liked observing people, and really enjoyed observing Henry Chinaski. His raw tongue, his honest approach, his wanting for the simple grit, even though he was on his way up professionally made you ask: Why? But as the story continued you knew the answer. Experience is fodder for fiction. Sometimes the greatest loss to an artist is success, and maybe that's what Henry Chinaski was most afraid of, which is why he buried himself in the booze and the women. On the surface he seemed to use them; the women and the booze, but at the end I decided it had been the other way around, which made this snapshot perhaps a little tragic. Like the promoters and managers that stuff their clients full of pills and penises to keep them distracted from the money, or keep them a trainwreck to make more money. There is a sadness in beauty and an ugliness in success, and Henry Chinaski painted this picture sometimes with many exquisite strokes, and when he was too drunk and too tired, with only a couple. (less)

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Dec 27, 2012 El Ashfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

Frank, warts and all, rather racy account of a womanising pseudo rock star personality, Chinaski, a thinly veiled persona to express Bukowski's own thoughts on women. At first if you are female, there is a tendency to want to go round and tell Mr. Bukowski what you think of his chauv. Ways. But the comedy element (he often cannot live up to his billing and drinks so much his performance is non existent), and the insight into a post 1960s bunch of crazy swingers, makes this a cartoonish and playf...more

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Dec 01, 2012 [P] rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: shhh-i-hate-you

What a heinous hunk of turd this is. Seriously, people rate this stuff? It’s the kind of thing juvenile boys are into. I remember being at school and the lads there lauding the hip hop records with the naughtiest words and the most aggressive sense of misogyny [snigger].

So, yeah, I get it, this book has got some sex in it and, gee, Chinaski drinks a lot and is rude to a whole bunch of people, and intellectually, emotionally, immature boys dig that kind of shit, but really girls [of any age], an...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Ilgvars rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a fan of "Californication" I found myself reading Women by Charles Bukowski.
It is confusing to describe what I experienced since the character in this book is different from what I was expecting (Yes, I am a victim of Hollywood)

The main character (Henry Chinaski)is a damaged man, anti - everything, despicable, lost in self-misery, just exsisting, exposing it in all aspects, screwing his relationships on purpose while seeing himself as a product of time and environment.
His writing seems too ra...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Hakan Dilmen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yazarın okuduğum beşinci kitabı. Üstad yazmış, sözüm yok ona...

Bukowski'nin en çok okunan, üzerinde en çok konuşulan, tartışılan romanı.

Kadınlar, Bukowski'nin en çok okunan, üzerinde en çok konuşulan, tartışılan romanı. Hayatında önemli yer etmiş, aşık olduğu, peşlerinden koştuğu, birlikte yaşadığı kadınları anlattığı romanı.
Kadınlar, Bukowski'nin kadınlarla ilişkilerini ve cinsel hayatını olabildiğince açıklıkla anlattığı en önemli romanı olarak da kabul ediliyor. Rahat ve serbest bir anlatımı...more

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May 16, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 3 of 5 stars

I ventured into Charles Bukowski via recommendations from trusted sources. Women is my first look, and for a while I was thinking it would be my last. But I think I’ve changed my mind. Read on to find out why.
Women is a rambling account of a 50+ writer named Henry Chinaski (not too much of a disguise for the author’s moniker) who finally achieves success and thus becomes attractive to women. He’s an unrepentant alcoholic, and a sloppy, dirty one at that. He works his way through countless param...more I ventured into Charles Bukowski via recommendations from trusted sources. Women is my first look, and for a while I was thinking it would be my last. But I think I’ve changed my mind. Read on to find out why.
Women is a rambling account of a 50+ writer named Henry Chinaski (not too much of a disguise for the author’s moniker) who finally achieves success and thus becomes attractive to women. He’s an unrepentant alcoholic, and a sloppy, dirty one at that. He works his way through countless paramours, and the book is an account of his endless and pointless rounds of drinking and fucking. The sex is explicit and, I imagine, would have seemed pornographic in 1978 when the book was published. It’s astounding that the women keep coming on to him, and,
in a number of cases returning after the first encounter. He’s seldom caring, often either entirely flaccid (one girl friend calls him her “wet noodle.”) or unable to climax because of his drinking. The drinking often causes him to vomit at inopportune moments. Women is full of humor, with its French-farcical complications of women running in and out of Henry’s life and digs at various times. The Christmas dinner fiasco with Sara’s organic is perhaps the most hilarious. Bukowski is merciless with his account of Chinaski’s failings as a lover and human being, and he’s also unrelenting in his portrayal of the women who become groupies for celebrity, even though the celebrity is a pathetic figure of a man. The novel ends virtually in mid-sentence, with the protagonist having finally realized that he’s a complete shit. However, he there’s no indication that he has any desire or plans to change either his attitude or behavior.

I appreciated some but not all of this as I was reading it, but grew so bored with the with the monotony of infatuation, sex, rejection, and cynicism that I began to wonder what the point was. Going by my maxim that when I fail to be moved by a writer that many others find thrilling, the failing is in me, not the book. So I did something I have never done before--I turned to the reviews. Lo and behold, I learned something, had to admit I’d overlooked an item or two. I include below a passage of Chinaski’s quoted by one reviewer:

I walked away feeling worse and worse. ... I could certainly play some nasty, unreal games. What was my motive? Was I trying to get even for something. .... I tinkered with lives and souls as if they were my playthings. How could I call myself a man? ... The worst part of it was that I passed myself off for exactly what I wasn't -- a good man. I was able to enter people's lives because of their trust in me. I was doing my dirty work the easy way.

The revelation doesn’t lead to any change in behavior, and that seems to be the point of the book. I still think Bukowski could have achieved the same effect better with a few less women and a little less fucking, and we’d have all been better off. But I am ready to affirm that Women is a work to recommend, and will go on to more Bukowski. However, Urrea still remains my find of 2011
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Apr 04, 2012 Kyle Shroufe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anarchist-marxist-etc, modernism-post-modernism, read-beat-lost

Although I thouroughly enjoyed "Post Office" and I thought it gave a good introduction to Henry Chininski (protagonist and Bukowski's Alter-ego) it certainly is not as good as "Women" turned out to be. Although Bukowski worked his entire life writing, he didn't actually become a 'writer' until post office and a little before when some of his major works of poetry were publushed. So it's fun to kind of watch his writing progress as he writes this novels and at the same time you can see how he as...more Although I thouroughly enjoyed "Post Office" and I thought it gave a good introduction to Henry Chininski (protagonist and Bukowski's Alter-ego) it certainly is not as good as "Women" turned out to be. Although Bukowski worked his entire life writing, he didn't actually become a 'writer' until post office and a little before when some of his major works of poetry were publushed. So it's fun to kind of watch his writing progress as he writes this novels and at the same time you can see how he as a man progress' through his alter ego Henry. The lack of hollywood in him and the "fuck off" attitude make him all the more desirable to women that know his work and it shows in this novel which seems to be mainly about what the title suggests...Women... Although there are certainly some deeper issues here and there are alegorical staments and metaphoric examples of Bukowski's either over or under thinking of his life but I never know is those are metaphorical or not because his writing style is so wacky and the prose so out of sorts and his characters are either over or underdeveloped but the way the story comes together is amazing in the end and truthfully you walk away either being astonishly clueless, upset, or like many of us (me included) aww struck by how his work lives in the 'now' and how you can pick any one of his books up and thumb through it and start reading at any page and you will pick it up because the story is always happening 'NOW' which I love and is what makes him very unique, especially at a time when most were focused on fidning new diction, new styles of prose and new ways of writing intirely and he actually came up with an effective method. Unfortunatley some people don't like it because it doesn't follow any method. This way of writing, the style he carries in his pen is amazing and helps me digest his works of literature and relate to them in a sense that I havn't been able to with other author The method is Bukowski's own and arguably he invented it and its been copied by the likes of some of the best later 20th and early 21st century writers such as "Dan Fante" son of the great "John Fante" who mixes so much Bukowski in his work and thats part of the reason I love him. "Women" certainly, must stand as one of Bukowski's best works. You can see he is starting to be more descriptive and desicive in his writing which shows his growth. One of my personal favorites this novel is, and like all of Henry's affairs in the novel you will have an affair with the novel itself until you are finished and long after...(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Mat rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the 9th Bukowski book I have picked up over the last couple of years and probably my second favorite after Factotum, although I also really liked Pulp.

This is another typical tawdry Bukowski tale full of booze and broads. This has to be the most sexually graphic of his novels to date, which comes as no surprise given the title of the book.

I wonder how much of this is true though. If even half of it is true, then Bukowski went through a period where he really got laid a lot! - which wo...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Jim Breslin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recently finished Bukowski's "Women." I enjoyed this, though I must warn you this is not for everyone. It's not a fairytale, but it is gritty realism - with details of living the lowlife in East Hollywood. For those that don't know, Henry Chinaski is a writer/poet who has gained an underground following and now, at a late age, he has women falling all over him. Women write him notes after being moved by his poems. Women meet him at book readings and jump into bed with him. Women call his unliste...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Ben Adams added it

More than just a litany of recurring one night stands and the perils of relatonships, this is Bukowski at his cynical, cutting, and self-critiquing best. He uses the title's theme to explore issues beyond just sex, commitment and the ever-present drinking and horse racing that are ubiquitous to all Buk's writing.

Bukowski's critics (and perhaps himself, at times) might want us to believe that women are mere objects to him, ways to pass the time on par with the bottle, the race track, or the typew...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Women	31	190	Mar 05, 2013 06:11am
Human relationships were strange....	2	29	Nov 19, 2012 05:37am
Looking for a book....	2	14	Nov 18, 2012 02:33pm
i must admit that from time to time i feel the same. they are a ghost in my life that will always be there	1	16	Sep 22, 2012 09:57am
hahahaha	1	15	Aug 05, 2012 04:08pm
She is a trap and we seem to be victims of our own pleasures	4	14	Aug 04, 2012 09:15pm
ebooks vs regular books	18	29	Jul 20, 2012 11:33am

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About Charles Bukowski

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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“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” — 2,484 people liked it

“being alone never felt right. sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.” — 960 people liked it

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