I've been hearing about what a counterculture god Bukowski is for years. I read /Factotum/ and some of his poetry, and my God is he terrible. I mean, he's the most overrated writer I've ever heard of, he even beats fucking Dan Brown. His poetry is... trite, at best. I don't have much commentary on it except that it bored me. As for his novel... terrible. I mean, it's horribly written, there's no getting past that. But even if it wasn't, it's just a journal of a little while in the life he lived. There is no art, he makes no message. All he says is how he lives. A story like that can be alright if it's a portrait, of sorts, but this doesn't even go that far. It's like Hunter S. Thompson if he couldn't write and didn't have a point. And besides that, he actually lived like that, pretty much. The man was a /massive/ slimeball, but then he writes about it, and, despite his lack of writing talent, suddenly becomes some great fucking artist? As well, /Factotum/ was boring. He lives in this city, works this job a bit, fucks this chick a while, etc. ad nauseam. There was no progression or development. Some parts I think were meant to be funny... I won't even get into that humour here, though. I'll just quietly note that I might have nervously giggled at it in grade eight.
|
