Bukowski Unleashed, Bukowski Journal, No. 1

by Edited by Rikki Hollywood.. Bukowski Journal. P. O. Box 11271 Wood Green London, N22 4Bf UK.

Book Review by Michael Basinski

This magazine was certainly a most pleasant surprise. It is perfect bound and has a paper wrapper and an R. Cumb image of Bukowski on it. It is a 160 pages long. A treat. And oh. My opinion: one of the better things to happen to Bukowski in recent times. Certainly there is a Bukowski industry in full swing. Bukowski Unleashed, AKA, Bukowski Journal No. 1 is both hard core literature, academic interpretation of the great one and fan-zine. On the heady side is a most interesting well-researched and provocative long essay by Neil Schiller called, “Social Mechanics and American Morality: the meanings of nothingness in the prose and poetry of Charles Bukowski.” There are then other authors who relate personal memoirs and a fine section of the editor’s synopsis statements of the Buk’s major books. There are reviews of various related books, for instance Davie S. Zane and R. Crumb’s Introduction to Kafka, reviews of books about Buk, lists and comments about Buk videos and movies and there are lots of caricatures of Bukowski. All around solid and fun and useful to the fan and scholar, casual reader and loyalist. Of course you get a CD free with the issue. I am listening to Kerouac as I write (Burroughs, Ginsberg etc. plus the Buk on the CD). R. Hollywood also deals in Buk books and like publications, has any number of Buk’s tapes available and has a monthly Buk list. For the serious Buk fan, reader, for the amateur and beginner Bukster and for anyone interested in any Bukoanlia: Bukowski Unleashed, Bukowski Journal, Number One is something you must hold in one of your hands. In the other hand, well, a beer, or a smoke or the tongue of a leopard …whatever.