On Drinking

By: Charles Bukowski

Narrated by: Roger Wayne

The definitive collection of works on a subject that inspired and haunted Charles Bukowski for his entire life: alcohol.

Charles Bukowski turns to the bottle in this revelatory collection of poetry and prose that includes some of the writer’s best and most lasting work. A self-proclaimed “dirty old man,” Bukowski used alcohol as muse and as fuel, a conflicted relationship responsible for some of his darkest moments as well as some of his most joyful and inspired.

In On Drinking, Bukowski expert Abel Debritto has collected the writer’s most profound, funny, and memorable work on his ups and downs with the hard stuff—a topic that allowed Bukowski to explore some of life’s most pressing questions. Through drink, Bukowski is able to be alone, to be with people, to be a poet, a lover, and a friend—though often at great cost. As Bukowski writes in a poem simply titled “Drinking,”: “for me/it was or/is/a manner of/dying/with boots on/and gun/smoking and a/symphony music background.”

On Drinking is a powerful testament to the pleasures and miseries of a life in drink, and a window into the soul of one of our most beloved and enduring writers.

I was in stitches

I was introduced to Mr. Bukowski by way of The Post Office which had me laughing like I hadn't laughed for many years reading a book. That was a hardcover by the way.

This was my first audiobook expericne with CB and I L*O*V*E*D the narration. It seems the other titles use a different narrator and he's also great but I felt something just uber-clicked with Mr. Wayne's slightly detatched tone and seeming bemusement at his "own" actions and completely insane happenings in his life.

A number of short essays and short stories, all of course related to drinking and um ancillary subjects.

SO funny. It got me into reading everything by CB and much of it is much more thought provoking and serious but boy this one is just so ill....

Alcohol-fueled entertainment

Bukowski is quite repetitive in his writings, but is always consistent in charm and hilarity. Truly one of the most unique voices in literature.

Don't read this sober

Bukowski is a drunkard's anomaly. Like all true drunks, alcohol took over his life early and eventually killed him. Unfortunately, he developed a following who were all eager to see how long it took for him to die. Any comparisons to Hemingway need a few shots before they can be even considered. This is what sober men frown upon as someone who wasted his talents in a slow self-destruction. Unlike dealing with the lotus eaters in the Oddesy where opium does not destroy the body alcohol turns Bukowski into a crestfallen mass of a man who writes till he can no longer hit a key.

The narrator isn't a good fit for Bukowski

While I like this narrator on The Subtle Art of not giving a F*ck, he doesn't work with Bukowski's style. I prefer the one from "Cats" and "Women" by Bukowski.

Bruce Wayne's Grandson really spits out the words.

Roger Wayne talks too fast. It is almost as if he were given an arbitrarily short amount of time in which to cram all of this material. Maybe somebody feared we'd mistake him for Will Patton?