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The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 | 
 enlarge | Author: Charles Bukowski
Publisher: Ecco
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $9.96
You Save: $7.03 (41%)
New (29) Used (5) from $9.96
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 44536
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061228443
Dewey Decimal Number: 811
EAN: 9780061228445
ASIN: 0061228443
Publication Date: December 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
To his legions of fans, Charles Bukowski was—and remains—the quintessential counterculture icon. A hard-drinking wild man of literature and a stubborn outsider to the poetry world, he wrote unflinchingly about booze, work, and women, in raw, street-tough poems whose truth has struck a chord with generations of readers. Edited by John Martin, the legendary publisher of Black Sparrow Press and a close friend of Bukowski's, The Pleasures of the Damned is a selection of the best works from Bukowski's long poetic career, including the last of his never-before-collected poems. Celebrating the full range of the poet's extra-ordinary and surprising sensibility, and his uncompromising linguistic brilliance, these poems cover a rich lifetime of experiences and speak to Bukowski's "immense intelligence, the caring heart that saw through the sham of our pretenses and had pity on our human condition" (The New York Quarterly). The Pleasures of the Damned is an astonishing poetic treasure trove, essential reading for both longtime fans and those just discovering this unique and legendary American voice.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Great collection of course but... December 26, 2008
considering the NY Times touts this as the "definitive volume of Bukowski's poems", it's a pity John Martin, as a man who really knew Buk, didn't take the opportunity to offer some commentary or at least give some background information on individual poems (even easy reference to what year they were originally published would have been appreciated).
Having said that, you can't get much these days for around 12 bucks, but for that price this book could give you years of enjoyment! And probably Buk himself would say, "it's only the ******* poems that matter!"
 Disappointing September 21, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
For a guy who's published as many books of poetry as Bukowski has, a large book of selected poems sounds like an excellent idea: a "greatest hits" type collection for casual fans to buy; a single place to get all his best poems. And this book could have been that, save the editing. First of all, over half of the poems selected were published after Bukowski died. They obviously were not what he considered to be his strongest works, they were leftovers. I understand that he had a lot of good leftover poems, but this book really overdoes it. The worst of these poems are the leftover leftovers, poems making their debut in this book (published in 2007). What the hell are poems like that doing in a collection that's supposed to represent his most accomplished and proven work? Secondly, there's absolutely no discernible pattern to the way these poems are arranged. No dates are given, and no attempt at chronology has been made, as if to imply that Bukowski's writing never had any kind of evolution over time. If you research the poems, you can actually spot places where this book jumps multiple decades just from one poem to the next, which makes it awkward to try to read it in order. And even if you don't care about author's intent or dates or sequence, and you just want a good book of poems, I think this book still fails. There are a lot of weak poems in this book, and I think the editor took advantage of the fact that he had complete free range of probably almost every poem Bukowski ever wrote and used it to try to redefine Bukowski as a different type of poet than he was reputed as during his life. And for what purpose, just because he could? This is the same guy who's been reading Bukowski's poems for years, he was probably sick of the old ones and more excited about the posthumous poems he discovered and published in recent years. New readers of Bukowski, tempted by the "selected poems" label, will be unfairly subjected to his personal bias. That isn't to say that there aren't good poems in this book, it just could have been a lot better.
 Henry Chinaski's Greatest Writings Ever Conceived. July 15, 2008
These poems have to be the most entertaining and creative poems Bukowski wrote. Drab and dullness are never portrayed in these writings. His outlook towards women, writing, drinking, politics, people and the city of LA and all his experiences are summed up well in this book.
Bukowski Collection April 8, 2008
I've long been a fan of Bukowski and it's nice to have such a large collection at my fingertips. It's nice to read some of the old poems, one more time. He was a classic.
Great for those new to Bukowski February 24, 2008
this book is great for what it is intended for. A look at Bukowski in a sort of encyclopedic form. Bukowski is very real and heartfelt but in the most simplest blunt fashion and I mean that to be very appreciative.
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