same here with the Amazon update.
waiting...
waiting...
Absence of the Hero
- Thread starter mjp
- Start date
Well, I went ahead and ordered from City Lights. Sorry for the diatribe a few weeks ago - second groundwater rising into basement episode in two weeks and my fuse was short. $8.50 is still steep, but I rescind my comment about prefering the $ to go to a mainstream bookstore.
I did the same based on Garrett's follow-up post. Just received mine and luckily no damage. But that cheap-ass bubble wrap has to go. I wouldn't order a hardcover book from them knowing ahead of time what packaging they use. I've ordered much from the small press and they one and all take good care in packaging their product. Could be I'm just an ass when it comes to such things.
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
In all fairness, when CL shipped the hardcover of "Wine-stained" last year, it was shipped in a box and wrapped in heavy duty bubble wrap (big bubbles). The problem was the book could slip out of the bubble wrap at the ends and the corners of the book would get damaged, and that's unfortunately what happened in many cases. CL simply forgot to close the ends of the bubble wrap with some tape. I'm sure they won't make that mistake again (I hope).
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Mine was shipped in a nearly square box about the volume of a shoebox with a 2x air pillow that took up approximately 20% of the box volume.
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Thanks, Bukfan, for insight in to the mishaps of the "Wine-stained" shipment. Scared me a bit reading the comments with regard to previous CL packaging. Absence.. being shoved in to a bubble mailer and shipped to me for $8.50 still seems less than acceptable but 3 pages in to Absence of the Hero and I'm in debt to CL.
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Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
You're welcome, Stavrogin! I'm sure CL have learned from their mistake, besides, they don't usually publish hardcover books. The Buk hardcover was an exception, and they did exchange the damaged books for new copies without any problems. Still, it should'nt have happened, but unfortunately for all parties it did.
I agree, the shipping price for Absence within the US is a bit steep. It's weird, because the shipping price for Europe is $12, and that's 49 cents cheaper than Amazon.
I agree, the shipping price for Absence within the US is a bit steep. It's weird, because the shipping price for Europe is $12, and that's 49 cents cheaper than Amazon.
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Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
$100? Either they seller is an idiot or he fucked up when he wrote down the amount - or maybe both. :D
apparently, $100 is cheap, because the seller claims unimaginably low prices!
yes, that is an unimaginable price...
yes, that is an unimaginable price...
ROC
It is what it is
Bill? :)
Mine's nice and clean, so maybe an overzealous glue-job.
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
Mine came in a 14kt gold box the size and shape of the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Either that or I'm on acid....
Bill
Bill
I just finished this one. I like it better than "Portions....," but that may be because it features a few good pieces from the early/mid '70s, when I feel Buk really hit his prime and became comfortable with himself and it shows in the writing. he's both King and Court Jester, often in the same sentence. a humble and self-effacing egomaniac.
And the end of the review (on Buk and Kerouac) is hilarious:
That both of these men had daughters astounds, and sort of terrifies, me; however, it's interesting to think of Bukowski sitting alone in his Los Angeles kitchen with the windows open, drinking beer, listening to classical music and flailing away on a typewriter in the same time period when Kerouac sat alone on the other coast in his mother's kitchen taking speed, listening to classical music and flailing away on a typewriter. They could've kept each other company quite nicely, when you think about it.
That both of these men had daughters astounds, and sort of terrifies, me; however, it's interesting to think of Bukowski sitting alone in his Los Angeles kitchen with the windows open, drinking beer, listening to classical music and flailing away on a typewriter in the same time period when Kerouac sat alone on the other coast in his mother's kitchen taking speed, listening to classical music and flailing away on a typewriter. They could've kept each other company quite nicely, when you think about it.
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Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Thank you Ponder for linking us to that. It was good except how does a guy write a review of a book and refer to stealing books as a kid? What does the critic want us to think that he's cool or just that he's a crook? There is some praise of Bukowski in his piece so you can't hate the guy but he should have considered the feelings of some of us crime victims and Borders Booksellers share holders out here. No wonder Bukowski drank so much.
note: I think my mood has been adjusted by being in the middle of reading Burning in Water Drowning in Flame.
edit: Adam Perry did write a nice piece and I should have thought about it before I jumped and got all bent out of shape but I'm leaving it. I would think Mr. Perry could care less about me or my opinion of his.
note: I think my mood has been adjusted by being in the middle of reading Burning in Water Drowning in Flame.
edit: Adam Perry did write a nice piece and I should have thought about it before I jumped and got all bent out of shape but I'm leaving it. I would think Mr. Perry could care less about me or my opinion of his.
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
Thanks, Ponder! A very positive review on the whole...
"Collections such as The Most Beautiful Woman in Town (1983), Hot Water Music and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983) showcase Bukowski's impressive narrative and creative abilities in stories that most often take place in bars and dingy apartments but are not simply about sex and alcohol. They're about staying alive in a world where the only choice for the majority of us is to face a firing squad in an office every day"”the post office, in Bukowski's case"”or maintain a commitment to creativity as we struggle to pay for food and a meager place to live."
"Collections such as The Most Beautiful Woman in Town (1983), Hot Water Music and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983) showcase Bukowski's impressive narrative and creative abilities in stories that most often take place in bars and dingy apartments but are not simply about sex and alcohol. They're about staying alive in a world where the only choice for the majority of us is to face a firing squad in an office every day"”the post office, in Bukowski's case"”or maintain a commitment to creativity as we struggle to pay for food and a meager place to live."
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Johannes
Founding member
I finally got around to order Absence of the Hero and I am about halfway through it. It's a beautiful job again, a very good and interesting collection of texts.
I still can't get over the fact what an unusual story "Love, Love, Love" seems to be. For Bukowski, I mean, come on, Brother George with his war experiences? Wtf? I'd say it smells a lot like Salinger, although Salinger wasn't even on the screen at the time this was written and published. It's strange. Or maybe Salinger smelled like early, unpublished Bukowski ;)
"The Rapist's Story" was a better read the second time, although I still find the whole worm-thing rather stupid and obvious. I think what he wanted to do here was a big and difficult ("literary") idea, taking one of the most taboo crimes of our times (raping a little child) and mold it into something else, getting the reader to feel sympathy for the "rapist". This seems an idea he played with again and again, as in "The Fiend". But where "The Fiend" is shocking and right into the face of the reader without explanations or whatever, "The Rapist's Story" is kind of begging around for understanding or sympathy or something. I don't know, it simply seems like trying to me, the whole story, and as we all know, that's something you bon't.
I still can't get over the fact what an unusual story "Love, Love, Love" seems to be. For Bukowski, I mean, come on, Brother George with his war experiences? Wtf? I'd say it smells a lot like Salinger, although Salinger wasn't even on the screen at the time this was written and published. It's strange. Or maybe Salinger smelled like early, unpublished Bukowski ;)
"The Rapist's Story" was a better read the second time, although I still find the whole worm-thing rather stupid and obvious. I think what he wanted to do here was a big and difficult ("literary") idea, taking one of the most taboo crimes of our times (raping a little child) and mold it into something else, getting the reader to feel sympathy for the "rapist". This seems an idea he played with again and again, as in "The Fiend". But where "The Fiend" is shocking and right into the face of the reader without explanations or whatever, "The Rapist's Story" is kind of begging around for understanding or sympathy or something. I don't know, it simply seems like trying to me, the whole story, and as we all know, that's something you bon't.
to me, it sounds a bit like Dostoevsky.
Ambreen
Sordide Sentimental
Can one find somewhere here the cover of The Outsider issue #3, with a Bukowski picture on it, about which a "well-known literary figure in England" wrote to Jon Webb: "How dare you run a face like that on your cover?" (cf the text titled The Outsider)?
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