Hot Water Music
by Charles Bukowski
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
insomniacs
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Read in October, 2007
recommended to Chris by:
Christian B.recommends it for: Buk fans who have already read the novels & some poetry and want something a little different
This was the first book of Buk's short stories I ever read. In my mind I keep twisting the title around trying somehow to get it to mean "you should read this book on the crapper" but it just won't fit. But ah who cares? It's an apt description anyway. In fact I bet the old dog would be proud to have his words mingling with the stench of a Sunday morning beershit. These short tales are full of crude humor, gutter-dwelling characters, alcoholism, addiction, depression, angst, misery, ad...more
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The sociopathic and, sometimes, psychopathic tendencies of the characters in this book of short stories far outweighs any of the apathetic-coast-thru-life-and-just-get-by-ness of Henry Chinaski in the only other Bukowski book I've read so far, Factotum. I was surprised to see these clearly fictional stories from Bukowski as I had gotten the impression he's really more of a "creative non-fiction" writer than a maker-up-of-tales. So, it was good to read this book of short stories (most u...more
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I´ve heard so much about Bukowski, people talk about him, love his work, etc.
So I finally picked up a copy of Hot Water Music to take with me while traveling.
I hated it. It was easy to get through and, admittedly, there were moments of brilliant succint-ness (spelled right? a real word?) where things were summed up neatly, wrapped up perfectly, in only a few small words...I liked that. That takes brains, thinking, restraint.
But really, how many stories about losers can one take? Let...more
So I finally picked up a copy of Hot Water Music to take with me while traveling.
I hated it. It was easy to get through and, admittedly, there were moments of brilliant succint-ness (spelled right? a real word?) where things were summed up neatly, wrapped up perfectly, in only a few small words...I liked that. That takes brains, thinking, restraint.
But really, how many stories about losers can one take? Let...more
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Read in February, 2005
recommends it for:
Aspiring misanthropes
I picked up this book on a whim at a Barnes and Noble in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The first couple of stories seemed pretty edgy, but nothing over-the-top. The further I got, the more depraved the stories became--and yet, like a child peeking through his fingers during the gory parts of a horror movie, I was fascinated by these horrible, disgusting characters and the unspeakable acts some of them committed. Admittedly, this book is not for those with delicate sensibilities, but if you've go...more
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Read in March, 2006
recommends it for:
assholes
i know it's lame - the only reason i bought this book was because of the modest mouse song named after bukowski, but with the lyric "god, who'd wanna be such an asshole?" i was instantly intrigued by this author. hot water music is a series of short stories that involve, in one way or another, assholes. modest mouse was right on. this guy horrifies, makes you very uncomfortable, disgusts you. he implants pity into your heart over his characters that never garner much sympathy themselve...more
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Read in July, 2004
recommends it for:
assholes
By far, my favorite work by Bukowski. This collection of short stories is both beautiful and grotesque. He is such an ass, and he talks about such base and vile acts... yet I love it! I could not put it down; I simply had to find out what fucked up thing was going to happen next. I think that the beauty of Bukowski is that he turns shit into flowers. An act that you would never consider to be pleasing is suddenly shown in a more light. Taking a shit. Killing your wife. These things are s...more
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Read in February, 2008
i pride myself on having a stomach made of steel (canned pineapple chunks make my tongue retract and stomach seize, however), but this book made me gag. the man creates a narrator with an affinity for picking at his own hemorrhoids for goodness sake! when bukowski gets good and grotesque, your eyes will widen to a painful degree and you may miss your bus stop but the man's got one helluva way with the brutal honesty of getting old. this is what you have to look forward to, aging into an oozin...more
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Read in January, 1999
recommended to Jesse by:
Tony Cooper
This was the first Bukowski I ever read. It was a serious eye-opener. Naive of me I know, but in a way I didn't think people could write stuff like this, publish stuff like this. It's easy enough to get hung on the more lascivious aspects, the drinking and the sex and the violence, but what really set him apart was his honesty, and his lack of fear in expressing things about himself that are unpalatable, unflattering, and the way he makes me laugh with him, at him. It taught me how to really...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in June, 2007
Yeah yeah "Bukowski is an asshole" "Bukowski embodies the ugly within us and turns into something compelling" ETC ETC ETC. He has a good grasp of words and writes clean, dirty sentences, he appeals to the everyman and the antihero and the bourgeois + Brooklineites who wish they weren't so lucky. Hot Water Music is good if you're the kind of kid who likes to read while on the toilet. It's better than The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, it's not as good as Ham On Rye or Women, an...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2007
This was my first experience with Charles Bukowski, and i also did not realize it was short stories, some very short.
I liked the way that he is very frank and candid. not many people would go so far as to let us know that one of the participants passed wind during intercourse.
The only thing i have to say i got bored with this book, is the way that alot of the stories were very similar to each other. some of it seemed a bit repetitive.
I plan on visiting the world of Bukowski again.
I liked the way that he is very frank and candid. not many people would go so far as to let us know that one of the participants passed wind during intercourse.
The only thing i have to say i got bored with this book, is the way that alot of the stories were very similar to each other. some of it seemed a bit repetitive.
I plan on visiting the world of Bukowski again.
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Read in March, 2008
"God, who would want to be such an asshole?"
So queried Modest Mouse about Mr. Bukowski, and after reading collections like this I'd wager you'd hear a lot of people saying, "I would." Chuck is the best at what he does: making the down and out, the poor and pitiful, the lustful and sinful full of color and life. The stories are brief, but they stick with you. If you can handle the dreary apartments and bloody body parts, then go to it and make your nights a little bit
So queried Modest Mouse about Mr. Bukowski, and after reading collections like this I'd wager you'd hear a lot of people saying, "I would." Chuck is the best at what he does: making the down and out, the poor and pitiful, the lustful and sinful full of color and life. The stories are brief, but they stick with you. If you can handle the dreary apartments and bloody body parts, then go to it and make your nights a little bit
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Read in September, 2006
Bukowski does not give a shit what you think of his writing. Well, that is not entirely true. You don't put as much of yourself into your characters unless you want people to think about you. Where he improves on the Beats in in his acceptance that the shit he often did was just simply boring and repetitive. Hence the absurd and occassionally outright impossible happenings he infuses his tales with. He was also a master of the short piece, a very underrated form of fiction.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
punks, lefties, artists, writers, poets, outsiders
Lots of short stories about living hard and fast with associates that include loose/crazy women and downright criminal buddies. Bukowski has a very calloused, often humorous take of life and art, but portrays it with care and beauty, even when he's describing the morose -- and that's why you have to love it. He's like a poet in a punkhouse. Art above all, even above taking out the garbage and basic hygiene.
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As always, Bukowski is what he is. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, even laughed my ass off a few times. I especially liked "Scum Grief" which I even had the courage to read to my mother, who, much to my relief, laughed her ass off. But even I have my limits, and it seems Bukowski tries to stretch them in a couple stories, but you take the good with the bad.
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Read in July, 2007
Bukowski's language is phenomenal. He creates phrases, sentences, descriptions achingly perfect and beautiful. My main complaint was his subject matter. I was bored. I didn't want to hear another account of disgustingly manly men drinking, smoking, and fucking while the women they fucked submitted or planned vampiric paths to the men's demise.
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Bukowski fans
A great collection of short stories. As with most short story compendiums, you will find some that you like more than others, but Bukowski provides both comedy and sorrow with such realistic poignancy that I still have not found a writer that can match his skill in evoking compassion through pathos.
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A male friend raved about this book and loaned it to me. I did not feel the same about Bukowski and I feel quite okay saying that too. What I gathered was how much he hated women.
I saw the film on his life later and it made me understand him better, but I still didn't care for his writing.
I saw the film on his life later and it made me understand him better, but I still didn't care for his writing.
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Just because your book is filled with a lot of drugs and a lot of sex and a lot of cursing doesn't make it good. I hate Charles Bukowski almost as much as I hate Hemingway. I'm pretty sure that last sentence knocked me out from ever holding a prestigious place in the literary world.
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Read in January, 1995
recommends it for:
Sinners
Ahh, tales of the low life. Short stories.
I imagine Clint Eastwood's voice. Clipped, unadorned accounts of the horse track, taproom, on the bus, on the toilet. Waking up in a LosAngeles bungalow court that you kind of recognize.
He says what he means. Refreshing in a way.
I imagine Clint Eastwood's voice. Clipped, unadorned accounts of the horse track, taproom, on the bus, on the toilet. Waking up in a LosAngeles bungalow court that you kind of recognize.
He says what he means. Refreshing in a way.
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