Title: On Writing
Author: Charles
Bukowski
Editor: Abel
Debritto
Publisher: Canongate
Books
Genre: Non-Fiction,
Writing
Pages: 224
Source:
Personal Copy
“My
writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way, I don’t
want it smoothed out.”
A
writer’s life is all about books. Everyone knows how to write but very few of
them know how to persist. Are you strong enough to face the
rejections, loads of rejections? It’s quite unbelievable that this
is my first read of Bukowski, when there was a tag in the book
“Don’t pick the book, if you have not read bukowski yet.” I
couldn’t resist that much curiosity and I took it immediately. Boom!
When
I read the title of the book, I thought it would teach me the art of writing, but believe me except few pages, you won’t find those teachings. Basically book
is about the correspondence letters shared between Bukowski and his
publishers, editors and friends. Sometimes I got amused how could they publish
this, this is someone’s private life, his struggles, his mood swings, Yet … To
know someone personally is quite interesting especially when he is an author. Usually
authors don’t allow their readers to peer into their lives. So it was kind of
an adventure.
“more
poems enclosed. I’m trying to build a stockpile and I will blow the world up
with my poems. yeh.”
“I
think sometimes we can become too holy and therefore, caged.”
“You’ve
got right to criticize me and much of it is probably correct, but one thing
you’re going to learn, finally, I feel is that creation is not photography or
even necessarily standard truth. Creation carries its own truth or lie.”
Bukowski’s
life builds on rejections, millions of failure before he actually got success
in respective field. It was interesting to glance on his rejection slips. Can
you believe it he got rejection letter from Hustler that revealed,
“The subject matter is just too strong for us to handle, Specifically, it’s the
beastiality and also its violent result.”
“Writing
is a damn funny game. Rejection helps because it makes you write better;
acceptance helps because it keeps you writing."
When
I started the book, literally I was going to drop it but when the pages move forward, It was getting better and I began to enjoy it to the core.
There were some doodles which made me laugh, some insightful moments of
an author’s life as well.
Book
consists of his unpublished letter written between 1959 to 1983, So don’t
expect much, things were repetitive still seemed refreshing.
[To
John Martin]
March
23, 1991, 11:36 PM
I
keep getting this feeling that I am a beginning writer. The old excitement and
wonder are there . . . It’s a great madness. I think too many writers, after
they have been in the game for some time, get too practiced, too careful. They
are afraid to make mistakes. You roll the dice, you’re going to get snake eyes,
sometimes. I like to keep it loose and wild. A good tight poem can happen
but it comes along while you are working with something else. I know I write
some crap but by letting it go, banging the drums, there’s a juicy freedom in
that.
I’m
having myself a rife, ripe, rapacious, ripping time. So far, the gods are
allowing me this celebration. It’s so strange. But I’ll take it.
If
you could stay away narrow-minded neurons for a while, then Must Read This
Book.
About
The Author
Henry
Charles Bukowski (born asHeinrich Karl Bukowski) was a German-born
American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by
the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.It
is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing,
alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote
thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually
publishing over sixty books.
Charles
Bukowski was one of our most iconoclastic, raw and riveting writers, one whose
stories, poems and novels have left an enduring mark on our culture. On Writing
collects Bukowski's reflections and ruminations on the craft he dedicated his
life to.