The Buk Book: Musings on Charles Bukowski

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta. He is
the author of Calling Texas, Earth Prime, and Mind the Gap.

Reading this brief and overpriced book is like watching someone’s bad
home movies. Underground writer Charles Bukowski has gained a cult
following for his explorations of the lower depths. One could summarize
his career by paraphrasing what F.R. Leavis said about the Sitwell
family: they belong to the history of publicity, not to the history of
literature. Jim Christy, who is a friend of Bukowski’s, certainly
conveys the carelessness and superficiality of the man in this book, an
unsavory mix of gossip and grotesque Polaroid shots of Bukowski. In a
few of the photos, he is seen fondling a woman known only as Gina; the
effect is anything but erotic.