Charles Bukowski (45 page)


Praise for

CHARLES BUKOWSKI: LOCKED IN THE ARMS OF A CRAZY LIFE

‘Exhilarating, hilarious and often emotionally draining, this superb biography of the maverick, hard-bitten bard of the Los Angeles demi-monde uncorks a potent brew of wild, anti-heroic anecdotes.’
Publishers Weekly

‘This is the first in-depth biography of Bukowski and succeeds by pulling into focus the hazy image of the apocryphal barfly anti-hero.’
The Times

‘In his engaging biography … Sounes adroitly uses snippets of Bukowski’s poems to comment upon the writer’s life, and his interviews and correspondence with everyone from Sean Penn to Bukowski’s former girlfriends reveal a more sensitive and vulnerable artist than the virile, down-and-out he-man persona Bukowski so diligently created.’
New York Times Book Review

‘Bukowski has been cursed here with a good and thorough biographer, and the portrait of the subject that emerges, while verifiably accurate, is not a very pretty one.’
Washington Post

‘Draws on a huge amount of source material and can claim to be the most definitive to date.’
Guardian

‘Bukowski’s America – a land of free-falling morals and stunted personalities – is particularly well explored.’
Observer

‘Powerfully researched.’
Times Literary Supplement

‘Sounes’s book is assiduously researched and simply told in a style that allows the full complexity of the writer’s personality to unravel. Five stars.’
The List

‘Sounes, who consulted private letters to and by Bukowski, assembled a formidable range of interviewees, including Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Bukowski’s widow, his publisher, his girlfriends, a barman and many poets from Los Angeles with whom he drank, to construct an intriguing biography of a complex man. Bukowski’s life is described by many voices and not just one, and Sounes astutely avoids simply regurgitating infamous anecdotes that are commonplace to anyone who knows the work… Importantly,
the biography provides a correct chronology of Bukowski’s life, difficult to grasp from simply reading the novels. Sounes also succeeds in deflating some myths about Bukowski.’
Independent
on Sunday

‘A thrilling peephole into [Bukowski’s] life.’
Wax

‘Exhaustive and very moving … a remarkable portrait of an American true-blue original.’
Livewire

‘Exhaustively researched.’
Los Angeles Times

‘A soberly investigated picaresque life… a biography that listens to Bukowski’s all-night barroom anecdotes and then checks the facts the morning after.’
Kirkus Review

‘A must-read for anybody who is a fan of Bukowski’s writing, [the biography] successfully conjures the voice of this outrageous character, and offers clear-eyed insight into his extraordinary life.’
Toronto Globe and Mail

‘A dandy look at [Bukowski’s] gloriously misled life… Sounes provides a valuable gateway to greater appreciation of a still under-appreciated writer.’
Booklist

‘Proving himself to be an excellent author in his own right, Sounes manages to write without sticking his proverbial thumb all over the lens … the result is a fast-paced narrative and a great read.’
Minneapolis City Pages

‘Surely, the result of [Sounes’s] exhaustive work, as he modestly hopes, the “definitive account” of the life of this self-proclaimed “Dirty Old Man”.’
Denver Post

‘A lively portrait of American literature’s “Dirty Old Man” … Recommended.’
Library Journal

HOWARD SOUNES, who was born in suburban south-east London in 1965, made his living as a newspaper journalist until the mid-1990s when he broke major stories in the case of the serial murderers Fred and Rosemary West for the
Sunday
Mirror
. He went on to cover the West case for the
Daily
Mirror
and wrote the bestselling book
Fred & Rose
(1995) about the story. Sounes next tackled this biography of Charles Bukowski, becoming so immersed in the project that he quit his job to devote himself to it.
Charles Bukowski: Locked in
the Arms of a Crazy Life
was first published by Canongate in 1998, and is now established as the definitive biography of this American writer. Sounes went on to edit a complementary photographic book,
Bukowski in Pictures
(Canongate, 2000). More recently, he has written the bestselling biography
Down
the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan
(2001); an investigative history of professional golf,
The Wicked Game
(2004); and
Seventies
(2006), a history of the arts in the 1970s. Howard Sounes’ books are published around the world, translated into many languages. He lives in the City of London, and is represented by the literary agency Curtis Brown.

Seventies

Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan

Bukowski in Pictures

The Wicked Game

Fred & Rose