Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Love Is a Dog from Hell: Poems, 1974-1977

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Love Is a Dog from Hell: Poems, 1974-1977 by Charles Bukowski

23 reviews

thegreatbigben's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

h_motionless's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The appeal of Bukowski is so difficult to describe and even to justify. It’s unbelievably vulgar, crass, disturbing, and downright gross, yet it’s genuinely fascinating. The quality of the writing itself is great, and many of the poems reflecting on alcoholism, wasting your life away, and the process of writing are poignant and memorable. What disrupts this is the blatant and entirely overt paedophilia and oversexualisation of women - it’s commonly accepted that Bukowski writes women absolutely terribly so I come to expect this when picking up his work, but as soon as he sexualises children with no suggestion that it isn’t autobiographical or satirical, he loses me entirely.

Content Warnings

marieoooo's review against another edition

2.0

Content Warnings

thedistortionist's review against another edition

3.0

dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

laurencelitdeslivres's review against another edition

3.0

dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

1.5

fast-paced

There's two or three salvageable poems but honestly I feel like Bukowski just relies on the shock factor to pretend that he's actually good.

Content Warnings

aritacb's review against another edition

1.25

dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I usually enjoy Bukowski’s writing style, his realism, and his raw honesty in his poetry. However, the majority of the content in this particular book was absolutely deplorable. His later work from when he chilled out from his gross drunken man hoe years is much more readable. There was a handful of poems that were written in the way that made me like his work but I can no longer in good conscience keep this book on my shelf, if that tells you anything. I was already aware of his vulgarity but this was vomit inducing. His early work is definitely a no-go. This book was mainly comprised of the poems I would typically skip or hate in his other books.

Apparently Harry Styles loves this book (🚩) but I would never recommend this unless you’d enjoy the debauched poetry of a drunk, depressed, nearly destitute, middle aged man.

This only gets an extra half point for the very few poems l liked and because this was definitely reminiscent of beatnik literature. Kerouac would probably like this.
But in this era, only guys that hide how awful they are under being pretentious would like this crap. (like Matty Healy. iykyk lol)

Content Warnings