Rating: 
Summary: Some True Grit Behind the Vapid Glitz
Review: Although far from Bukowski's best, this is a revealing send-up of what happens when brutal honesty (Buk) interacts with the California entertainment industry. A roman a clef about the making of the independent film Barfly based on Bukowski's life and some of his earlier stories,the book shows Bukowski finally gaining some recognition and acceptance near the end of his career. The movie stars Faye Dunnaway and Hollywood badboy Mickey Rourke who does a good job slurring and walking about with hemorrhoids. Yet it appears from the text that Bukowski would have preferred Sean Penn, who was originally cast in the part, to play him in the film--Penn had more heart. As always with Bukowski, there are real emotions, honest appraisals, and bone-cutting prose--not compromise, pandering, mediocrity, and unfortunately often successful attempts by MSG-dazed writers to pluck the heart strings and collect the cash.In all his books, Bukowski's presence is perhaps the most palpable of any author behind his fictional protagonist. This is, one might argue (and Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe did, in the Paradox of the Actor), the diametric opposite of actors, whose abilities lie in taking on the personae of others, and consequently losing their own identity in the process. The story is that when Bukowski, although much older, first encountered Arnold Schwazenegger in Hollywood, he had to be restrained from attempting to fight him just for being such an obvious phony. Far from his most testosterone-crazed, drunken bull self here,he does not seduce but does manage as if for old time's sake to pull onto his lap the pretty co-star during a wine-drenched film party. Even and especially when confronted with (and making some money off of) L.A.s billion-dollar dream machine, Bukowski (as alter ego Henry Chinaski) preserves his uncompromising heart and unwavering eye in the face of the ugly truth. A welcome tonic to Hollywood's treacle.
Rating:
Summary: Quite A Romp
Review: BARFLY is what first brought Buk into my life, so this thinly veiled fictional account of its making was a joy to read. It's a bit goofy in spots (some of the names Buk came up with to represent the real stars he encountered are ridiculous), but classic Buk nonetheless. Why isn't Buk taught in college English classes yet?
Rating: 
Summary: TINSELTOWN FLAKES
Review: Buk was right. His take on screwie Hollywood. Funny and true. He was smart to stay clear of Hollywood's phonies and neurotics (with the exception of writing Barfly for the big screen). See the flick by the way, doubt you'll be disappointed--unless you've got a bit too much starch in your white collar. Buk wrote about blue collar down-and-outers like himself, and did it with a uniqueness and originality all his own.
Rating:
Summary: The original barfly
Review: Bukowski's humor is razor sharp in this book ostensibly on the making of "Barfly." Bukowski was enjoying some measure of success and even respect by this point, and was approached by Schroeder to write the screenplay for a movie about himself. Bukowski was of course flattered and took up the challenge. His books and poetry have always been about himself in one form or another, but here was his big chance to imagine himself on screen.Bukowski takes you step by step through the making of the movie, with a sardonic eye for the details. Schroeder and his pal tried to get in touch with the lower east side of LA, which Bukowski enjoys poking fun at. He wasn't too keen about having Mickey Roarke cast as himself, he had Sean Penn in mind, but was smitten with the idea of Faye Dunaway as his love interest. The book doesn't plunge to the lower depths as do his short stories and poetry. Bukowski keeps himself semi-detached from the subject of his early life. The book, like the movie, looks back at these formative years in a wry way that has a number of amusing twists and turns. He ends appropriately enough with the screening of the movie, with much of the gang invited to attend, making a party of it down in front of the screen as they assessed the film. Not bad, Bukowski concluded.
Rating:
Summary: The original barfly
Review: Bukowski's humor is razor sharp in this book ostensibly on the making of "Barfly." Bukowski was enjoying some measure of success and even respect by this point, and was approached by Schroeder to write the screenplay for a movie about himself. Bukowski was of course flattered and took up the challenge. His books and poetry have always been about himself in one form or another, but here was his big chance to imagine himself on screen. Bukowski takes you step by step through the making of the movie, with a sardonic eye for the details. Schroeder and his pal tried to get in touch with the lower east side of LA, which Bukowski enjoys poking fun at. He wasn't too keen about having Mickey Roarke cast as himself, he had Sean Penn in mind, but was smitten with the idea of Faye Dunaway as his love interest. The book doesn't plunge to the lower depths as do his short stories and poetry. Bukowski keeps himself semi-detached from the subject of his early life. The book, like the movie, looks back at these formative years in a wry way that has a number of amusing twists and turns. He ends appropriately enough with the screening of the movie, with much of the gang invited to attend, making a party of it down in front of the screen as they assessed the film. Not bad, Bukowski concluded.
Rating:
Summary: Hurray for Hollywood!
Review: Drinking and creativity do not necessarily go together. For every O'Neill, Faulkner, Hemingway, and London, there are hundreds of others who live lonely, desparate and short existences, slowly drinking themselves to death in complete anonymity. Luckily, the world was blessed to have had Charles Bukowski whose most creative moments emerged when he sat before a typewriter with a wine bottle in one hand. Bukowski wrote gritty and no holds barred novels and poetry about the things he loved best--drinking, horse racing and women. He also wrote the screenplay for "Barfly," a film about his young manhood, spent hanging around seedy bars, getting into drunken brawls with the bartender, and writing some of the best poems this side of the grave. Bukowski tells the story of his screenwriting experience through his alter ego Henry Chinaski, a survivor when everyone else in his crowd had already died. It's all there--dealing with easily bruised egos, the Hollywood eccentrics, the on again, off again production problems in making the film, and the continuous inconsistency of cash flow. What lends _Hollywood_ its wonderful resonance is its realness--the boldness and the pluck of its coarse leading player, Charles Bukowski/Hank Chinaski. And of course, his inspiration, the bottle of wine which was, even on the set, never too far off.
Rating:
Summary: Hurray for Hollywood!
Review: Drinking and creativity do not necessarily go together. For every O'Neill, Faulkner, Hemingway, and London, there are hundreds of others who live lonely, desparate and short existences, slowly drinking themselves to death in complete anonymity. Luckily, the world was blessed to have had Charles Bukowski whose most creative moments emerged when he sat before a typewriter with a wine bottle in one hand. Bukowski wrote gritty and no holds barred novels and poetry about the things he loved best--drinking, horse racing and women. He also wrote the screenplay for "Barfly," a film about his young manhood, spent hanging around seedy bars, getting into drunken brawls with the bartender, and writing some of the best poems this side of the grave. Bukowski tells the story of his screenwriting experience through his alter ego Henry Chinaski, a survivor when everyone else in his crowd had already died. It's all there--dealing with easily bruised egos, the Hollywood eccentrics, the on again, off again production problems in making the film, and the continuous inconsistency of cash flow. What lends _Hollywood_ its wonderful resonance is its realness--the boldness and the pluck of its coarse leading player, Charles Bukowski/Hank Chinaski. And of course, his inspiration, the bottle of wine which was, even on the set, never too far off.
Rating:
Summary: barfly movie making process story
Review: excellent story about how charles' BARFLY movie came to be. written in all honest candor and the trials an author has to endure throughout the system of getting this completed
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Trilogy
Review: I have just begun reading books of historical Hollywood fiction and I love it. Even though I don't know who they mean, I can clearly see the characters as described. My three favorite books this year have been "Hollywood" "Hollywoodland Kingpin" "Carter Beats The Devil." All are terrific Hollywood romps; semi-fictional, based on real-life behind the scenes events. Thorne Peters and Glen Davis Gold are debut authors. Old Hollywood was way more exciting than today's Hollywood. I'm just learning about speakeasies and flapper girls with brandy flasks in their garter belt. It makes me look at my 87 year old grandmother a little differently, knowing she was a young girl going to those places in N.Y. I wish she had told me these stories when I was growing up....This is a must read book!
Rating:
Summary: 'Bukowski light' describes the making of 'Barfly'
Review: Legendary down-and-out poet Henry Chinaski writes a screenplay for a determined film producer at the risk of his soul in this light, but entertaining novel. At this point in his life, at the more mature age of 60 or so, Chinaski (Bukowski's fictional alter ego) isn't the hopeless drunk he appears to have been in his younger days. His lady friend (whom he stays with for the
entirety of the book - perhaps a record) tries to keep him off the hard stuff, and is usually pretty successful, so there's almost none of the helplessness, depression, womanizing, and self-destructive behavior that we most associate with Bukowski's work. Spurred on by a relentless producer who is determined to make a film by the Great Chinaski, Hank spends 22 days churning out a screenplay, much against his own better judgment. We stay
with Chinaski through the meetings, the parties, the desperate ploys for financing, the scouting for locations, and some of the actual shooting itself, and through it all a vision forms of how independent films actually get made. The most entertaining part of the story is Buk's descriptions of the moviemakers themselves and the odd lifestyle that forces them to live in abject poverty while working on films that may gross millions of dollars. There are a couple of hard-edged scenes, but this book really isn't Bukowski at his hard-core worst. As a result, some of his fans will probably consider this book pretty lightweight - a mere diary of how he happened to make a movie, rather than the painful confession of his own inadequacies we've seen so often and grown to love. Still Bukowski is Bukowski, and his dry, cynical attitude can't help but color every landscape he sets his gaze upon (usually gray) and turn every word from his mouth into an obscenity (you know the usual monosyllables), so not everyone will find this book quite to their taste. While nowhere near as depraved as some of his earlier fiction, this novel is not for kids, or the prudish, and may strike some as crude, amoral, disgusting, and brutish, while die-hard fans may be disappointed in this kinder, gentler, mellower Bukowski. For the rest of us, this fascinating story, told in earthy, straightforward prose, provides a rare glimpse into the world of independent filmmaking.
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