Rating: 
Summary: Bukowski At One Of His Best.
Review: Here is one of those wacky collection of stories from the master of the street-printed word.Described in explicit detail are the honest remarks of a man insistently wounded by life & himself but still manages to gulp that last pint of strength to get through another day.The common themes of drunkenness,women,sex,bad jobs,bad apartments & roominghouses,scathingly biting attacks at society equaled with moving ones of tenderness etc.(mirrors of his life)are blurted in stabbing narrtives of world weary wisdom that makes the downtrodden character seem better off than anyone else.And theres even a modern take on the supernatural in the last tale.The quality of Hank's writing in this is him at his peak,showing the work of a man inspired compared to the mellow superficial tones of boredom that dopminate his last works.Modern society has never really had a poet to really call it's own;& in this book,together with his best,Hank stakes claim to his throne.
Rating:
Summary: Bukowski At One Of His Best.
Review: Here is one of those wacky collection of stories from the master of the street-printed word.Described in explicit detail are the honest remarks of a man insistently wounded by life & himself but still manages to gulp that last pint of strength to get through another day.The common themes of drunkenness,women,sex,bad jobs,bad apartments & roominghouses,scathingly biting attacks at society equaled with moving ones of tenderness etc.(mirrors of his life)are blurted in stabbing narrtives of world weary wisdom that makes the downtrodden character seem better off than anyone else.And theres even a modern take on the supernatural in the last tale.The quality of Hank's writing in this is him at his peak,showing the work of a man inspired compared to the mellow superficial tones of boredom that dopminate his last works.Modern society has never really had a poet to really call it's own;& in this book,together with his best,Hank stakes claim to his throne.
Rating:
Summary: Read the 1st paragraph of"I Shot a Man in Reno" 4 a summary
Review: Highly recommened for those who appreciate irony and a sick sense of humor. Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness was the original title, and more accurately describes the content than does its current truncated version.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, but...
Review: I read the tales, and I just Love them, Easy and Deep at the same time. "Appunti sulla Peste" one of the best, "Violenza Carnale" I Also see the short movie, just probably True. I feel...one More Beer.
Rating:
Summary: I consider this book a psychic litmus test.
Review: I recently loaned this book to my girlfriend. I haven't gotten a review from her yet, but if she likes it, I just may marry her. This is the best of all of Bukowski's great works. The words are so powerful and prophetic they have driven me to drink on several occasions. This book illustrates Bukowski in his best medium, the short story. A .45 To Pay the Rent is beautiful, and Animal Crackers in my Soup blew me away. READ THIS BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: good, but not best
Review: i think the novel stuff is better. This book was good, but it was no where near my favorite.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best
Review: I was completely enthralled by Bukowski's short story compilation, "The most beautiful woman in town," and eagerly tore into "Tales of ordinary madness." I was quite dissapointed.He has his moments of brilliance; the man's writing style and work with the short story have forever changed America's literary scene. The thing is, he seems to know this, and his hightened self-awareness is glaringly evident in many of the stories in "Tales." He's overly concious of himself and his growing significance, yet he continues to wine and cry about his condition in life. Does he want attention, or to be left alone, or both?
We're reminded in several stories how tough life's been to him and what a raw hand he was dealt; never mind the fact his idea of self-improvement is downing tall cans of beer until sunrise. He also seems to feel a constant need to brag about his growing status as a poet, yet he constantly bashes poets in general - sending the reader more contradicting messages at every turn. I guess a combination of whining and evident egocentricism has made me less a Bukowski fan following this particular work. I wanted less name-dropping, boasting (okay, you know music too, Buk - you're a misunderstood genius, we get it) and whining. But his writing and those rare sentences scattered throughout the work which achieve a level of true artistic status still make the book worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I was completely enthralled by Bukowski's short story compilation, "The most beautiful woman in town," and eagerly tore into "Tales of ordinary madness." I was quite dissapointed. He has his moments of brilliance; the man's writing style and work with the short story have forever changed America's literary scene. The thing is, he seems to know this, and his hightened self-awareness is glaringly evident in many of the stories in "Tales." He's overly concious of himself and his growing significance, yet he continues to wine and cry about his condition in life. Does he want attention, or to be left alone, or both?
We're reminded in several stories how tough life's been to him and what a raw hand he was dealt; never mind the fact his idea of self-improvement is downing tall cans of beer until sunrise. He also seems to feel a constant need to brag about his growing status as a poet, yet he constantly bashes poets in general - sending the reader more contradicting messages at every turn. I guess a combination of whining and evident egocentricism has made me less a Bukowski fan following this particular work. I wanted less name-dropping, boasting (okay, you know music too, Buk - you're a misunderstood genius, we get it) and whining. But his writing and those rare sentences scattered throughout the work which achieve a level of true artistic status still make the book worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: it all works, it's all good
Review: If you haven't figured it out by now I guess I will just have to tell you: Read anything and everything you can by Bukowski. Trust me.Now go away
Rating:
Summary: Anything but Ordinary
Review: In TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS Charles Bukowski does what very few can. He finds the poetry in real people who live miserable lives in miserable conditions, mostly by their own doing. There is very little to recommend in these characters. Like Bukowski, most of them are unemployed drunks, dirty old men, sexual degenerates, and morally stripped souls. They form a subculture that perpetuates and sustains itself as long as the liquor keeps flowing (and it does), the women keep giving (and they do ... and do), and the men continue indulging (and they do ... and do ... and do). And yet, the reader is transfixed. For better or worse (usually worse), the reader chooses to enter Bukowski's world, takes a perverse delight in the goings-on, lingers and tarries, knowing that he or she can escape from the pits of hell at will, revisiting when the urge strikes. Better yet, there is no hangover in the morning. TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS is a collection of short stories, united by themes of desperation, loneliness, dead-end jobs, sexual perversion, and a need for real connection in an alienated, disturbed world. In these stories there is truly something of the profane and sacred, irreverent and holy, indifferent and feeling. The stories stay with one long after the reading is over. Bukowski's writing style is as nonconforming as his person. He doesn't always adhere to the rules of syntax, but this only serves to visibly, or tangibly, underscore the more abstract originality of the stories and situations themselves. Bukowski isn't for everyone. The writing is fierce, sexually explicit, unforgiving, and yet so totally true to the characters and their lives that it never seems overdone, affected, false. Through his words, Bukowski manages to transform the ordinary into something great.
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