Wednesday, December 30, 2020

On Drinking - Charles Bukowski

2019, 251 pages. New Author? : No. Genres: Poetry; Collections; Alcohol; Letters & Correspondence; Excerpts. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.


Charles Bukowski, aka the Poet of the Proletariat. Born August 16, 1920; died March 20, 1994. According to Wikipedia, the FBI kept a file on him, which means he's my kind of writer.


In addition to thousands of poems, Bukowski wrote six novels, hundreds of short stories, and a bunch of newspaper columns, the latter apparently being what piqued the FBI's attention.


More than sixty books have been published, so you can read his opinions on all sorts of things. But his favorite topics were his writing, the women in his life, the various crappy jobs he held while trying to make it as an author, the various crappy living conditions that went along with those jobs, and the multitude of fights he got into while enduring those living conditions. And booze.


Bukowski was an unapologetic imbiber of copious amounts of alcohol. Beer, wine, whiskey, you name it. He had a lot to say about getting drunk, writing while drunk, fighting while drunk, loving while drunk, and waking up with hangovers after being drunk.


Now, Abel Debritto has combed through Bukowski's literary output, extracted his best comments about the joys of booze, and compiled them into a coherent book.


With the straightforward and unambiguous title On Drinking.


What’s To Like...

On Drinking is part of a four-book series of Charles Bukowski's thoughts on his favorite themes. The other three books are: On Writing, On Love, and the surprising On Cats. I've already downloaded two of these to my Kindle. The selections come in all sorts of forms: poems, correspondence, prose, autobiographical excerpts, drinking stories, you name it.


I liked that Abel Debritto arranges the entries in chronological order, covering three decades of Buko's life, from 1961 to 1992. I found it interesting that early in his career, Bukowski claims he can only write when he's drunk. Later on, he changes his mind and asserts that he can write equally well while drunk or sober.


Beyond the titular theme of getting drunk, I learned a lot about Bukowski. We share a favorite Chinese poet: Li Po, and Bukowski even dedicated one of his poems ("Immortal Wind") to him. Bukowski always had the radio on when writing, and listened to classical symphonies and composers such as Stravinsky. He gives us an insider's view of life in a drunk tank, which I am glad to say I've never experienced, and when he came down with tuberculosis late in life, he despaired because it meant he had to give up drinking and smoking. Later on, he rejoiced when doctors declared him to be TB-free, presumably celebrating by renewing old habits.


For me, the most telling aspect of the book was reading about the highs and lows of Buko's lifelong relationship with booze. The multiple trips to the charity ward, a poor man's hospital. Not being able to drive because of 2 DUI's and no insurance. His obnoxious behavior at a zen wedding. And having to stand before a "drunk tank judge".


There are a couple of neat sketches, done by Bukowski himself, scattered throughout the book, as well as a few candid photos of him. I found the "Publisher's Note" at the beginning of the book interesting: apparently trying to convert prose into an e-book format is quite the challenge. The "Extras" at the back are pretty normal: Sources, Acknowledgements, About the Authors, and "Also by Charles Bukowski".

Ratings…

Amazon: 4.9/5 based on 94 ratings.

Goodreads: 3.92/5 based on 398 ratings and 47 reviews


Excerpts...

"Everybody's talking about liberation now, that's the thing, you know. Do you know that?"

No response. They didn't know that.

"All right, I say let's liberate the roaches and the alcoholics. What's wrong with a roach? Can anybody tell me what's wrong with a roach?"

"Well, they stink and they're ugly," said some guy.

"So's an alcoholic. They sell us the stuff to drink, don't they? Then we drink it and they throw us in jail. I don't understand. Does anybody understand this?"

No response. They didn't understand. (loc. 1223)


As you know, the worst drinking is done

on an empty stomach, while smoking heavily and downing many different

types of libations.

and the worst hangovers are when you

awaken in your car or in a strange room

or in an alley or in jail.

the worst hangovers are when you

awaken to realize that you have done

something absolutely vile, ignorant and

possibly dangerous the night before

but

you can't quite remember what it was. (loc. 2926)

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must live. (loc. 1162)

On Drinking will not please everyone. For starters there's a lot of cussing and various sexual situations. Naturally, every single excerpt has some drinking in it, although hardly any drugs, which surprised me.


At times the book gets repetitive, but I anticipated that. After all, even if you're a wordsmith like Bukowski, there are only so many things you can say about getting drunk and having hangovers.


Finally, as with anything autobiographical, you have to ask yourself: how much is factual and how much is hyperbole? Bukowski paints himself as legendary drinker and lover, a superior fighter (when drunk), and a rude party guest. Did all these balls, brawls, and falls really happen, or are they exaggerations that make for good stories?


Who knows, but I liked the book.

7½ Stars. It's been a while since I'd read anything by Charles Bukowski, aka Henry "Hank" Chinaski, so for me On Drinking felt like meeting up with an old acquaintance after a long absence. I liked this novel way of repackaging his literary commentary, and am looking forward to reading his comments on women and writing.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Inferno - Dan Brown

2013, 611 pages. Book 4 (out of 5) in the Robert Langdon series. New Author? : No. Genres: Thriller, Historical Fiction, Puzzle Solving. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.


It's great to be in Italy! Robert Langdon has visited here a couple of times in years past, and he has thoroughly enjoyed sightseeing in Florence, his present location. There are all sorts of museums, cathedrals, and palaces to explore, many dating back to the 13th century, when city-stares like Florence and Venice were at the height of their power.


Alas, Langdon is currently in a hospital room, under medical observation. The nurses and doctors tell him a bullet grazed his head and he's lucky to be alive.


That probably explains why he doesn't remember how he got to Italy, nor why he even decided to travel here. According to the medical people, the trauma of a brain injury from being shot in the head often induces amnesia, sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent.


But it doesn't explain why someone is trying to kill him. Nor why someone, presumably the same gunman, has just burst into his hospital room and shot one of the doctors dead, simply because he made the mistake of getting between Langdon and the shooter.


What’s To Like...

Inferno is the fourth book in Dan Brown's fantastic thriller series featuring lecturer and historian Robert Langdon. Book 2 in the series is the mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code, the book that got me hooked on Dan Brown. Here, as always, the action starts immediately, the thrills are non-stop, and our hero has to solve a bunch of riddles and save the world, all the while avoiding getting killed by one or more trained hitmen.


You can tell that the author meticulously researched the three settings in the story: Florence, Venice, and Istanbul. I felt like if ever I found myself lost in any of those cities, I could use this book as a map.


The book's title is of course a reference to Dante's Inferno, which I've never read. A lot of the puzzles that Langdon has to unravel are based on that classic, and the author works a synopsis into the storyline via a backstory and one of Langdon's lectures. You'll learn a little bit of Italian along the way, and a smattering of Turkish. I found the etymology of Purgatory and quarantine to be quite fascinating, so too my discovery that "H+" has a second meaning besides the chemist's "hydrogen ion".


The 611 pages are divided into a whopping 104 chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue, so there's always a good place to stop for the night. I found it to be a fast read, but not necessarily an easy one since there's a lot "tour guide" type of descriptions of the settings.


There are plenty of plot twists over the last quarter of the book, which is something I think Dan Brown is a master of. The ending is a mixed bag. On one hand it's unconventional, and it was refreshing to read something other than the usual "just in the nick of time" thriller ending. OTOH, a lot of the plot threads are left dangling, and unless Book 5 in this series resolves those threads, the ending here leaves you wondering what happens next.


Kewlest New Word ...

Quatrefoil (n.) : an ornamental design of four lobes or leaves, as used in architectural tracery, resembling a flower or four-leaf clover. (Google-image it.)

Ratings…

Amazon: 4.1/5 based on 30,644 ratings.

Goodreads: 3.85/5 based on 475,002 ratings and 37,222 reviews

Excerpts...

When Langdon arrived at the event, he was met by the conference director and ushered inside. As they crossed the lobby, Langdon couldn't help but notice the five words painted in gargantuan letters across the back wall: WHAT IF GOD WAS WRONG?

"It's a Lukas Troberg," the director whispered. "Our newest art installation. What do you think?"

Langdon eyed the massive text, uncertain how to respond. "Um ... his brushstrokes are lavish, but his command of the subjunctive seems sparse. (pg. 104)

“I'm in some trouble, Jonas, and I need a favor." Langdon's voice sounded tense. "It involves your corporate NetJets card."

"NetJets?" Faukman gave an incredulous laugh. "Robert, we're in book publishing. We don't have access to private jets."

"We both know you're lying, my friend."

Faukman sighed. "Okay, let me rephrase that. We don't have access to private jets for authors of tomes about religious history. If you want to write Fifty Shades of Iconography, we can talk." (pg. 344)


“I've heard of denial ... but I don't think it exists." (pg. 279)

There are a couple quibbles, but no show stoppers. First off, you'd better love chase scenes, because the one here goes on for the first 450 pages, and that's literally 3/4 of the book. Similarly, you'd better like info dumps, because there are a slew of them here about the three settings, their history, their buildings, and the various artists who lived there in the Middle Ages.


The R-rated stuff is pretty much limited to a smattering of cusswords. I counted ten in the first 20% of the book, and these are of the milder ilk.


Lastly and leastly, the main storyline is about a plague and this being 2020, the last thing I wanted was a story that would increase my pandemic hysteria. But this book was published in 2013, long before the term "Covid-19" existed, so Dan Brown can hardly be blamed for my bad timing in reading this.


If you can make it through the seemingly never-ending chase scene, you are rewarded with 250 pages of as good of a thriller as anyone can write. And even if Inferno doesn't quite measure up to The da Vinci Code, well, so what? I for one am glad Dan Brown made the attempt.

7½ Stars. Dan Brown endures a lot of flak spouted by people who consider him a hack writer. A smidgen of it might be justified, but it's more than offset by his abundant talent for penning exciting stories. More than 475,000 readers have left a rating on this book at Goodreads, and more than 37,000 of those took the time to leave a review. He may not be Shakespeare, but there are lots of people, including me, who are drawn to his books.