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Essential Bukowski: Poetry

by Charles Bukowski

A broad selection of Bukowski’s poetry

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A broad selection of Bukowski’s poetry

Edited by Abel Debritto, this 240-page collection brings together poetry spanning Bukowski’s career. Its subjects range from love, sex, and death to writing and the absurdities of ordinary life, with the selection presenting both early work and poems from later in his career. The book’s central contrast is between bleakness and hope, while its unvarnished, self-deprecating perspective turns attention toward everyday experience and human concerns. The result is a useful overview of the range of themes associated with Bukowski’s poetry, rather than a collection limited to a single subject.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers seeking a career-spanning selection of Charles Bukowski’s poetry.
  • Those interested in poems about ordinary life, love, sex, death, and writing.
  • Readers exploring modern American poetry and its treatment of difficult or contradictory human experiences.

Themes

Ordinary life and absurdityLove and sexDeathWritingBleakness and hope

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Edited by Abel Debritto, the definitive collection of American poetry from an influential writer whose transgressive legacy and raw, funny, and acutely observant writing has left an enduring mark on modern culture.

Few writers have so brilliantly and poignantly conjured the desperation and absurdity of ordinary life as Charles Bukowski. Resonant with his powerful, perceptive voice, his visceral, hilarious, and transcendent poetry speaks to us as forcefully today as when it was written. Encompassing a wide range of subjects--from love to death and sex to writing--Bukowski's unvarnished and self-deprecating verse in this landmark poetry collection illuminates the deepest and most enduring concerns of the human condition while remaining sharply aware of the day to day.

With his acute eye for the ridiculous and the troubled, Bukowski speaks to the deepest longings and strangest predilections of the human experience. Gloomy yet hopeful, this is tough, unrelenting modern poetry touched by grace.

This is Essential Bukowski.

This career-spanning collection captures the voice of a literary outlaw:

  • Transgressive Literature: Witness the raw, funny, and acutely observant voice that left an enduring mark on modern culture, speaking to the deepest longings and strangest predilections of the human experience.
  • Raw and Honest Writing: Experience Bukowski's unvarnished, self-deprecating, and powerful verse, which illuminates the most enduring concerns of the human condition with visceral and hilarious clarity.
  • Poems About Life: Journey through a wide range of subjects--from love and sex to death and the desperate absurdity of writing and ordinary life--all captured with a tough, unrelenting style touched by grace.
  • Literary Poetry: Curated by leading scholar Abel Debritto, this essential volume presents the most powerful and poignant work from a master of the form, tracking his evolution from early lyricism to his final, philosophical stance.
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