RUN WITH THE HUNTED: re-discovering Bukowski’s great short stories

Purchase PERMANENT OBSCURITY now from Amazon

I finished re-reading RUN WITH THE HUNTED: A CHARLES BUKOWSKI READER, and as I've said to a few others here I'm really impressed by his dialogue. His short stories, in particular, are really good. Better than I ever remembered them being.

Have they changed or have I? I might almost say the short stories in this collection are my favorite re-discovery.

But now here's what I recommend: that if you haven't read this book, you start from the back. Meaning start at page 497.

Why? Cause I feel that's the strongest arrangement of the book: Back to front.

My favorites:

"Fooling Marie" -- a short story, p. 479 (originally from HOT WATER MUSIC)
"Bring Me Your Love" -- a short story, p. 479 (originally from SEPTUAGENARIAN STEW)

This one was also made into a booklet, illustrated by Robert Crumb:

It's hilarious. Bukowski is at his best (his most fun and snappiest) when he's dealing with the eternal men vs. women dilemma.

("Bring Me Your Love" Pg. 473) "I'm the patient, Fishhead. I can make a better diagnosis than anybody."
"What's this 'Fishhead'?"
"Hasn't anybody ever told you that you have a head like a fish?"
"No."
"Next time you shave, take a look. And be careful not to cut off your gills."

(From the chapbook/booklet: "Bring Me Your Love")

More recommended stories from RUN WITH THE HUNTED:
"Dr. Nazi" -- a short story, p. 377 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"You Can't Write a Love Story" -- a short story, p. 377 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"White Dog Hunch" -- a short story, p. 320 (originally from HOT WATER MUSIC)
"Loneliness" -- a short story, p. 299 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"Scream When You Burn" -- a short story, p. 281 (originally from HOT WATER MUSIC)
"A Man" -- a short story, p. 274 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"Working Day" -- a short story, p. 264 (originally from HOT WATER MUSIC)
"No Way to Paradise" -- a short story, p. 256 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"A Shipping Clerk with a Red Nose" -- a short story, p. 240 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"Maja Thurup" -- a short story, p. 199 (originally from SOUTH OF NO NORTH)
"The Death of the Father" -- a short story, p. 182 (originally from HOT WATER MUSIC)
"A Day" -- a short story, p. 141 (originally from SEPTUAGENARIAN STEW)
"Son of Satan" -- a short story, p. 30 (originally from SEPTUAGENARIAN STEW)

"The Life of a Bum" p. 82 -- is a strange one. At first, I thought it was too sloppy, like a second or third draft, and not a well-tightened story. But, it has great passages, like this one (p. 95):
"People were in the dark. People were terrified and disappointed. People were caught in traps. People were defensive and frantic. They felt as if their lives were being wasted. And they were right."

---------------


There are excerpts from all his novels, the best of those being (in my piss-drunk opinion) POST OFFICE and WOMEN.

But there's this great passage from his novel, HOLLYWOOD (on pg. 441):
"I was not fit for the world and the world was not fit for me and I had found some others like myself, and most of them were women, women most men would never want to be in the same room with, but I adored them, they inspired me, I play-acted, swore, pranced about in my underwear telling them how great I was, but only I believed that. They hollered, "Fuck off! Pour some more booze!" Those ladies from hell, those ladies in hell with me."


---------

Favorite poems:


"the bluebird" pg. 497
"hug the dark" pg. 394
"junk" pg. 393
"the most" pg. 362
"I made a mistake" pg. 361
"prayer in bad weather" pg. 357
"who in the hell is Tom Jones?" pg. 329
"I'm in love" pg. 318
"the shower" pg. 315
"a horse with greenblue eyes" pg. 308
"the last days of the suicide kid" pg. 298
"somebody" pg. 280
"on going out to get the mail" pg. 279
"claws of paradise" pg. 248
"for Jane" pg. 231
"For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough:-" pg. 230
"The Day I Kicked Away a Bankroll" pg. 222
"Layover" pg. 194
"The Genius of the Crowd" pg. 185
"The Night They Took Whitey" pg. 169
"consummation of grief" pg. 117
"flophouse" pg. 107
"love poem to a stripper" pg. 46


Here's "flophouse" (pg. 107 in RUN WITH THE HUNTED, pg. 101 in THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS)

you haven't lived
until you've been in a
flophouse
with nothing but one
light bulb
and 56 men
squeezed together
on cots
with everybody
snoring
at once
and some of those
snores
so
deep and
gross and
unbelievable-
dark
snotty
gross
subhuman
wheezings
from hell
itself.

your mind
almost breaks
under those
death-like
sounds

and the
intermingling
odors:
hard
unwashed socks
pissed and
shitted
underwear

and over it all
slowly circulating
air
much like that
emanating from
uncovered
garbage
cans.

and those
bodies
in the dark

fat and
thin
and
bent

some
legless
armless

some
mindless

and worst of
all:
the total
absence of
hope

it shrouds
them
covers them
totally.

it's not
bearable.

you get
up

go out

walk the
streets

up and
down
sidewalks

past buildings

around the
corner

and back
up
the same
street

thinking

those men
were all
children
once

what has happened
to
them?

and what has
happened
to
me?

it's dark
and cold
out
here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you enjoy this blog?

Support this author by purchasing his work: here.



“Richard Perez has the ears of the angels—lend him yours.”
—Barry Gifford, author: WILD AT HEART, PERDITA DURANGO


“Perez's is an exciting talent and his work goes far beyond most of what is published today.”
—Henry Flesh, author: MICHAEL and the Lambda Literary Award-winner,
MASSAGE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls
and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana
(as told to Richard Perez)

Richard Perez's PERMANENT OBSCURITY on Amazon

Yours Now!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IS THIS EXPLOITATION NOVEL RIGHT FOR YOU?

"Notebook" for the novel --> http://permanentobscurity.com/

I need to emphasize that PERMANENT OBSCURITY is not "erotica," although it has BDSM overtones (leaning toward so-called "femdom"). It's really a dark comedy about bohemia and the difficulty of relationships (female/male and female/female) and finally the big question for anyone in the arts (or in the tabloid media): sudden fame vs. permanent anonymity. The style of the novel is inspired by '60s over-the-top sexploition films like those of Russ Meyer (FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL, BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) and those Something Weird Videos, like A SWEET SICKNESS and BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL [so-called “cautionary tales”]) -- updated to the Bush era (circa 2006).

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)
Written in the 3 parts:

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 1 - THE KINKY HOOK
Whereupon we are introduced to Dolores and Serena and their kinky shenanigans.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 2 - STRANGE HUNGERS
Whereupon Dolores and Serena grapple with relationship/sexuality issues, life-threatening drug dealers, irreversible money woes. Culminating in a desperate attempt at making a so-called "femdom" film.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: PART 3 - NO MAN'S LAND
Whereupon Dolores and Serena find themselves in a place not expected. Namely, hell.

PERMANENT OBSCURITY: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» PERMANENT OBSCURITY: the title and where it came from --> http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-origins-title.htm

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» The subversive power of sexploitation:
pre-porn era sexploitation and its influence --
http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-sexploitation-1.htm

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» BAD GIRL CINEMA (and its influence on the novel):
http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-origins-badgirls.htm

Buy now from AMAZON (U.S.) >> http://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Obscurity-Cautionary-Misadventures-Pornography/dp/0971341540

¤*.¸¸.·´¨`°*» To purchase (foreign countries): http://permanentobscurity.com/perm-obsc-buy.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~: About the Author:

 

Initially published small literary magazines, Richard Perez has also written for The New York Times (a newspaper he doesn't read.) His first novel, The Losers' Club (aka: The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition) has three foreign translations to date: Korean, Turkish, Italian. PERMANENT OBSCURITY: or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography, and Death — his second novel — also reflects his infatuation with bohemia and willful nonconformists.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~: