Through his raw, brazen language the reader can virtually smell the fetid stench of his "single-occupancy only" rooms, and sample true grit as he had lived it. Weaving their troubled selves into situations stranger and more desperate than fiction, they play out their lives in scene after self-deprecating scene and, in so doing, provide the reader with a very personal glimpse of the seedier side of Hollywood life. 

Bukowski's brutally candid character studies may inhabit a place far from the glamorous image of Hollywood, the star-fucker Mecca, but they are 180 degrees nearer to the reality that disappoints many tourists and glory-seekers each year. Bukowski need not have looked any further for inspiration. 

Born in Andernach, Germany in 1920, Charles Bukowski (or "Hank Chinaski" as he is known to his readers) moved to Los Angeles at the age of three and pretty much never left. As an adult, he moved about between many of the apartments, bungalows, and weekly rental hotels throughout the city. He dwelled in the bars and occupied himself with the many damaged women he found there. 

From the top of the barrel to the bottom of the bottle, there was no shortage of amusement or pathos in his life. His work is a detailed testimony to the various life-forms that he encountered. By the time of his death last year, Bukowski published some forty-plus books, and countless magazine articles reflecting the life of an adult alcoholic clutching onto one thread from the fringe of society. 

Despite being well-known internationally by a broad contingent of the literati, Bukowski is most popularly known for inspiring and authoring the 1987 movie, Barfly, which cast Mickey Rourke in the loosely biographical role. The most readily available, and therefore most popular of his works include, but is not limited to the following : Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail (1960) ? (His first published book by Black Sparrow Press) Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969) Erections, Ejaculations, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness (1972) Love is a Dog from Hell: Poems 1974-1977 (1977) Women (1978) Ham on Rye (1982) You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense (1986) ? (winner of the best title award in my book - K.V.) the Movie: Barfly (1987) Hollywood (1989) Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader (1993) 

*All books listed are available through the publisher, Black Sparrow Press, unless otherwise stated. Book requests and other inquiries should be addressed to: Black Sparrow Press, 24 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. 

Notorious artist hangout Al's Bar hosted "Women Read Bukowski" in conjunction with local art journal, Coagula. "Women Read Bukowski" was directed by Coagula's own Mat Gleason, and features Hope Urban, Lizzy Balogh, Beth Bergman, Anne Pigalle, Stay-C, and Maggie McOmie at Al's Bar, located at Traction and Hewitt streets in Downtown L.A.'s loft district. 

Set before an elaborate backdrop designed to simulate your average L.A. "Tiki" bar, six of the coolest and most powerful females on the Downtown arts scene brought into life the sleaze and abnegation of Bukowski's personal environment during an intensely believable theatrical presentation. Taking his words straight from the page as written, this production was not so much an endeavor to personify the hapless victims of circumstance Bukowski made epic as much it was an attempt to interpret his own character and disposition. 

It is also an examination of Bukowski's attitudes toward his subjects - the pill-freaks; lonely-hearts; crazies; lushes hell-bent on self-destruction; film industry fuck-offs; media-hound journalists, as well as himself. With style, skill, and imagination these actresses rotated on, around and off the stage, taking turns telling their bit, and fading back into the ambiance, telling a story - verified on film. --Karrin Vanderwal, originally published by Crashsite.com in 3/2/95.