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A review by samirasbt
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame by Charles Bukowski
4.0
This was the first collection of Bukowski’s poetry I read and many of the poems truly did something to me.
He writes in such a cynical and realistic way about the fragments of his life, blurred through alcoholism and struck down by futility and a deep loneliness, and the words felt so raw and sharp and insane at the same time. The things he writes about mostly aren’t what you’d title pretty or beautiful, but his mundane and trivial way of talking about them somehow fills each with such captivating beauty.
Reading this felt like wandering through the edges of his mind, some of his words came across so randomly and bewildering, others were so bare and likewise picturesque, somehow ahead of everything.
He writes in such a cynical and realistic way about the fragments of his life, blurred through alcoholism and struck down by futility and a deep loneliness, and the words felt so raw and sharp and insane at the same time. The things he writes about mostly aren’t what you’d title pretty or beautiful, but his mundane and trivial way of talking about them somehow fills each with such captivating beauty.
Reading this felt like wandering through the edges of his mind, some of his words came across so randomly and bewildering, others were so bare and likewise picturesque, somehow ahead of everything.