Love is a Dog From Hell

Bukowski is the man. Period.

A real classic! Easy read and lifts spirits

One of my all time favorite books. Great read for the summer. Highly recommend.

I'm beginning to think there's something wrong with me. I have read so many books that people say "You either love it or hate it," yet I feel indifferent (or I slightly like or dislike it). Bukowski is the first writer I've seen described that way, and for a long time, I agreed. I agreed because I despised his poetry and wanted nothing to do with it. However, I decided to give it another chance, just to solidify my opinion. It didn't hurt that the Kindle edition of Love is a Dog From Hell was on sale for a buck or two a while back. So, I bought it and never touched it until a few days ago when I was searching through all my owned books for some poetry to read. Now that I've actually read an entire collection of his poetry, I think I like Bukowski. I don't love his writing and he isn't even on my list of my top ten favorite poets, but I don't hate it, either. I won't claim to "get" his poetry because there's no way of knowing if I do or do not. I hate analyzing literature and poetry, trying to pick out what the writer was "really trying to say" like we had to do for high school and college English classes. I will say that I enjoyed most of it, which surprises me. I'm fonder of more traditional poetry, usually. That's probably why I hated the first Bukowski poems I was exposed to. It wasn't the subject matter (which seems to be an issue for some people), but I still feel conflicted about his style. I don't hate it, but I can't really say I like it. If you've never read Bukowski, give him a shot. Maybe you'll love his style, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll hate it. But, you won't know until you try reading it. If you're like me, maybe you'll hate it at first, then later decide it isn't so bad.

Imagine if Hemingway was much cooler, more eloquent and insightful, grittier, dirtier, and wrote poetry. Bukowski may, in my opinion, be the best American poet. "the fools will win, but break like a horse out of the gate."

Aside from watching the excellent movie adaptation of his largely autobiographical novel, "Factotum," I knew little about Bukowski before reading this collection of poetry. "Love Is a Dog From Hell" collects his works from the mid-1970s (1974-1977). Bukowski was in his fifties and fairly successful as a writer by this point. The poems often center on his problematic relationships with women, whom he usually treats as sex objects. His views on women are clueless and offensive but capture what so many men (especially of his generation) seem to think. His greatest insights are usually in some of his crudest and most off-putting poems. Other poems concern his writing process, what he sees in his seedy L.A. neighborhood, and his drinking. The humor in his poems sometimes stems from a "I can't believe he wrote that" sense of disbelief, but much of the time it comes from seeing such a flawed man bare his soul and write so fearlessly. He's a depressive sad sack who drives away women with his outrageous behavior ("I had resigned myself to dying alone in a small room"). Yes, some of his work is no more than simple potty humor, but at times, his lines are quite wise (e.g., "there is always one woman to save you from another"). I strongly suggest that the prospective reader sample a few of his poems before purchasing a full collection. Also, I found it most effective to read in relatively small dribs and drabs. Too many of the poems in one sitting was a bit stultifying. This review is of the Kindle version. The text is formatted well and was very easy to read; I did not find any obvious errors. On the Kindle Fire, the Table of Contents includes a link to each poem, so you can immediately skip to your favorites.

I am happy with the purchase... although, I wish the listing stated every poem included. I was looking for a particular poem from that time range of this book... and a Google search stated it was in this book. Unfortunately it is not. Not a huge issue as I love bukowski... But, if the listing included the poem titles, I'd have purchased a different book. Now I have to order a different book to get that poem.

Great stuff...I'd put it a notch below "The Last Night of the Earth Poems"