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Charles Bukowski – The People Look Like Flowers At Last | Review

Title: The People Look Like Flowers At Last

Author: Charles Bukowski

Type: Poetry

Page Count/Review Word Count: 306

Rating: 5*/5

Charles Bukowski – The People Look Like Flowers At Last

This collection of poetry is said to be the final posthumous publication of Charles Bukowski’s work, compiled with the help of some manuscripts that he left behind for the express purpose of it being released after he kicked the bucket. And boy, what a collection it is.

The interesting thing here is that the work is even more introspective than you might be used to from Bukowski, and while he looks back at his youth with the experience of age, he also covers some of the perils of old age, including a piece about how much it sucks to be on antibiotics and unable to drink or smoke when you’ve been drinking and smoking for fifty years straight and it’s made its way into your unique style of literature.

Speaking of literature, Bukowski also takes a look at the literary world, ruminating on the death of Ernest Hemingway or poking fun at the author bios that you see inside anthologies and literary magazines. Somehow, the great poet was able to remain firmly anti-establishment even after being accepted by it, and these poems offer a fascinating insight into that unusual contradiction.

Bukowski has so many poetry books on the market that it’s difficult to recommend any one book over another. That said, this was one of my favourite collections, and this is definitely a must-have for any serious Bukowski fan. The man had a way with words that no other writer has been able to duplicate, although many have tried. It’s a refreshing taste of a different type of literature, made all the more poignant because it wasn’t released until after his death. I’d definitely recommend reading it.

Charles Bukowski – Read him instead…

Click here to buy The People Look Like Flowers at Last.

George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle – Windhaven | Review

Title: Windhaven

Author: George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 388

Rating: 8/10

George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle – Windhaven

This book was interesting, because one of the writers is George R. R. Martin, the guy behind the A Song of Ice and Fire series which, in turn, was adapted into a TV show as Game of Thrones. I’ve always thought it’s strange when two authors work together on a single book, mainly because it’s difficult to tell who contributed what.

Luckily, I’m happy to judge the book without giving too much of a damn who wrote it – I’ve always thought that the identity of the author is unimportant, and I think that if publishers switched to accepting manuscripts based on their merit, rather than who wrote them, we’d see a lot more talent in front of a mainstream audience.

But that’s neither here nor there. What we have here is a book that A. E. van Vogt – whoever that is – described as both romance and science fiction, but that I see more as a straight up fantasy novel. It follows the life of a woman called Maris, who challenges tradition and finds that this challenge could have led to unexpected consequences.

George R. R. Martin

See, Maris wants to be a flyer, a right which is traditionally handed down through blood. Anyone can fly, but they have to have a certain passion for it, and Maris certainly has that passion – she wants to soar in the skies on her metal wings, delivering messages between the islands.

The story line started slowly at first, at least for me, but I soon found myself getting dragged into it, although I did find it hard to love the characters from time to time. But the cool thing is that the characters are defined by the events that surround them, and vice versa. That makes them feel fully fleshed out, and more realistic than they might otherwise have felt.

Overall then, this was a fun little read, and one that would be suitable for younger readers, as well as for folks like myself who just like a cracking read, a well-told story that obeys all of the rules of a classic fairy tale without actually managing to be one. I read it in just a couple of days – I gobbled it up.