Charles Bukowski was a poet disdainful of the usual crew ofpoets and what he saw as their sniveling self-absorption. Yet he was absorbedin his own world, which often resembled a corner of hell. He was against prettymuch everything and drank to deaden the pain of living in a society hedespised. In writing so nakedly he became the outré hero to artists who dreamedof living on the edge. Argentine writer Carlos Polimeni and illustrator MiguelRep boil down Bukowski’s life and work to its essentials, often quoting fromhis spoken words and writings. Bukowski found his audience in the ’60s, but aswith everything else, he had little use for the ’60s. “Burroughs is a very dullwriter,” he wrote, rejecting fellowship even with other writers on the fringe.
