Envy is a Dog From Hell

interesting article in San Pedro's biweekly newspaper, Random Lengths about poet Ben Pleasants' book signing at Williams' Book Store on 6th street this past first Thursday.

Pleasants latest is Visceral Bukowski, which is another in a long line of books written by people who knew Bukowski. some of the authors knew him well (Steve Richmond), others not at all (Howard Sounes). i've read all of these books, and as i was reading Visceral Bukowski i thought, "damn, this is pretty good." unfortunately, being the best of that weak bunch isn't much to crow about.

the problem that most of these books suffer from is that they were written by Bukowski's contemporaries - fellow poets and writers who never achieved Bukowski's level of notoriety (or income), and there is an unmistakable stream of jealousy running through each of them. each in his own way attempts to take the old man down a notch, which i suppose makes them feel a little better about their own careers, or lack thereof.

Pleasants takes his stab by including a chapter based on a conversation he had with Bukowski about Adolph Hitler, and uses that conversation to label Bukowski a Nazi. this understandably riled Linda Bukowski, who refused to attend the book signing, but did stop by earlier in the day to leave a "fuck you" note for Pleasants.

the author of the Random Lengths article also used some choice language to put down Pleasants and his book. but really, the book was very good, and everyone in Pedro piling onto Pleasants seems a little unnecessary, though it is heartwarming to see locals rise up to defend Bukowski against the perceived evil that is Visceral Bukowski.

but with all due respect to Linda and Random Lengths, i think Bukowski himself would have liked Pleasants' book. it's rough and uncompromising, and it doesn't airbrush the warts or attempt to canonize the old man.

remember, don't try.