Reviews for Bone Palace Ballet

The average rating for Bone Palace Ballet based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-20 00:00:00 Joseph Vargas I like Bukowski. I like his blunt honesty. I like how he manages to give a damn and not give a damn at the same time. I like how easy it is, how natural it feels. It's very human poetry. It isn't posed or faked, it isn't trying to drown itself in pity, misery or self-loathing. There's a feeling of tender detachment in it. Like he's looking back on it. And he might well have been. I didn't know this was a selection of previously unpublished works until I was almost done reading it. "New Poems" might have given it away, but all poems are new at some point, so really, how would I know? Had I known I might not have bought it. The thing about selections like this is that, well... some things were just never meant to be published. The majority of the poems in this book are pretty good - but not great. Bukowski is very apt at making me see the world from a different perspective - one that is otherwise lost to me, and I love that. I love the style he has and the easy simplicity he employs. However, we do hit some less fortunate selections. To be quite frank I have no idea what the fuck some of it's doing there. There's a poem about his cat. Several about exchanging his typewriter with a computer. Some are about being old They're repetitive, some descriptions or variations thereof are used more than once. To be honest he's a little off through the whole thing, but some are worse than others. There are still moments when he shines and I'm amazed. But not as much as I'd like. Maybe I'm just expecting the wrong thing: "I am writing a novel now and one way or the other I have lost 4 chapters in this computer. now like everything else this isn't such an important thing unless it happens to you (...) like you'll read this poem and think, too bad, well, he lost 4 chapters but couldn't he have written a poem about reaming some whore in a motel room instead?" but couldn't you have done that, Charles? And saved me having to sit through this drivel that leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a feeling like you've given up? No, in the end I can't blame him. He didn't publish it. The whole selection suffers under not having been meant to be published together. The title is exceptional though, that alone deserves 5 stars, I wish the rest had too.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-01-25 00:00:00 Brian Mcnamara Some of these were excellent, some of these weren't. But hey, that's Bukowski. First Love: "--without those books I'm not quite sure how I would have turned out: raving; the murderer of the father; idiocy; hopelessness. when my father shouted "LIGHTS OUT!" I'm sure he feared the well-written word immortalized forever in our best and most interesting literature. and it was there for me close to me under the covers more woman than woman more man than man. I had it all and I took it."