The final blow

This fact has already become commonplace: before in America, Charles Bukowski became a literary star in Germany and Yugoslavia. He was born in Germany, so that can possibly be explained by the insidious action of biography, as far as Yugoslavia is concerned, it is still more difficult.

Within Selected works Charles Bukowski, the publishing house LOM published a collection of his fourteen interviews. The interviews were conducted between 1963 and 1990. If we bear in mind that Bukowski published his first book in 1960, and that he died in 1994, it turns out that this collection "covers" his entire literary career.

When it comes to mainstream media reception of Bukowski, it is definitely marked by misunderstandings. It is characteristic, for example, to mention Bukowski in the context of the writers of the rock and roll generation, even though Charles Bukowski despised all forms of popular music and indulged obsessively in the classics. However, it is easiest to get to know the real Bukowski through his non-fictional texts, and it is entirely realistic to imagine that a new generation will enter his literary world precisely through this book.

ALCOHOL AND ME: The fourteen interviews in this book are arranged in chronological order, except for the first one, which serves as a kind of prologue. In this sense, it is interesting to note that the first interview in this book was conducted by the famous actor Sean Penn. He asked Bukowski what he thought about alcohol, and the writer replied: "Alcohol is probably one of the greatest things that ever appeared on earth - besides me, of course." Yes… they are the two greatest things that have ever existed on earth. That's why we agree. For many people, alcohol is extremely destructive. I'm just one of them. Everything I wrote came from drunkenness. Even with women, I was always tight when it came to sex, so alcohol allowed me to release myself sexually. He frees me, because I'm basically a shy, withdrawn person, and alcohol enables me to be a hero, to take big steps through time and space, to accept all challenges... And that's why I love him."

It is interesting to follow Bukowski through almost three decades, during which time his career is constantly progressing. The fragment about alcohol quoted a moment ago, for example, originates from 1987. Almost a quarter of a century earlier, twenty-four years earlier, in 1963, Bukowski answered the question about the influence of alcohol on his work as follows: "I don't think I've ever written a poem sober." But I wrote some good songs and some bad songs in a bad hangover, when I didn't know if it was better to have another drink or stab myself with a knife."

PROFESSION LIFE: In all fourteen interviews, the topics of alcohol, betting on horses, literature and women appear as leitmotifs. When it comes to betting, Bukowski said in 1975: "Horse racing does something to you, like drinking: it moves you away from the usual experience of things." Hemingway went to the bullfight, I go to the hippodrome. Of course, when you go to the hippodrome every day, it doesn't move you at all: it just gets you hooked." Fifteen years later, the connection between drinking and betting is there again, but presented differently: "I used to go to the hippodrome to get rid of alcohol. But it didn't work. Then I started drinking and going to the hippodrome. Nobody bothers me at the racetrack. While betting on races and horses, you can learn a lot about yourself and other people. For example, knowledge without a finishing blow is worse than ignorance. It's a good school, although sometimes it's a bit boring. But it keeps you away from thinking of yourself as a writer, or of your profession."

When it comes to the literary context, in these interviews Bukowski tries to present himself as a kind of spontaneous author, someone who was not influenced by any established movement. In 1978, for example, he said: "Intellectuals try to connect me with literary figures of the past - with Whitman, Melville." It makes me so tired. They want to pack me up. I try to tell them not to do that, you can't put labels on me. I'm a loner, I do my own thing. But it's no use. They keep asking me about Kerouac, and if I met Neal Cassidy, and if I was with Ginsberg, and so on and so forth. And I have to tell them NO, I was drunk during the whole beat movement; then I didn't write at all. And, of course, they are disappointed. The French want to associate me with beatniks for some reason."

Charles Bukowski's entire oeuvre is largely based on autobiography; after all, he himself says somewhere in this book that all his books are 93 percent autobiographical. Bukowski's interviews, however, have a potentially wider audience than his novels and poems. Fans of novels and poems will, of course, reach for the interviews, but the interviews can also be interesting for those who find Bukowski's prose and poetry too banal. There is some honesty and authenticity in these interviews that goes beyond mere fan interest. When Bukowski, for example, says: "Knowledge without a finishing blow is worse than ignorance," it covers a wider range territory from betting on horses. There are more elegant and erudite ways of expressing the same thing, but Bukowski formulated it in a key that has survived.

14 interviews it will appeal first to those who loved the non-fiction prose of Charles Bukowski, for example his diaries. For such Bukovians this book can represent final blow. Seemingly paradoxical, however, to those who have never read Bukowski before, to those who only know about this writer through his fame, 14 interview can represent a good entry into his opus, the reason for granting credit his other books. It is not just a small recommendation.