Tales of Ordinary Madness
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Tales of Ordinary Madness
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Narrated by:
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Will Patton
About this listen
"He loads his head full of coal and diamonds shoot out of his finger tips. What a trick. The mole genius has left us with another digest. It's a full house - read 'em and weep." - Tom Waits
Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, Chekhov, and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate and extreme - his life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote. His first work came from the 1960s Los Angeles underground press, and yet he became regarded as one of one of America's greatest poets and realist novelists.
This collection of Buk's grimmest diaries gives an insight into the noir and brutal Los Angeles that Bukowski observed and lived so well. He was a legend in his time: a madman, a recluse, a lover...tender, vicious...never the same. These are exceptional stories that came pounding out of his violent and depraved life - horrible and holy. You cannot listen to them and come away the same again.
Tales of Ordinary Madness includes iconic stories "A .45 to Pay the Rent" about drug dealing, fatherhood and love on the other side of the law, and "The Great Zen Wedding" in which Bukowski goes off the rails as best man at a wealthy Hollywood affair.
OBIE winner Will Patton (Remember the Titans, The Good Wife, Armageddon) recreates Bukowski in his visceral prime, along with every eye-popping character in his life, each adversary, lover, and stranger in a lost city.
©1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1983 Charles Bukowski
More about the author:
Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for 50 years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was 24, and began writing poetry at the age of 35. He died in San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994 at the age of 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.
©1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1983 Charles Bukowski (P)2017 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
What listeners say about Tales of Ordinary Madness
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 02-01-21
Bukowski at his gorgeous best
A wonderful array of filth, finesse and gutter poetry, spliced with the occasional swerve. Another essential piece of work from a truly great writer and human being.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- GREGORY PRATT
- 04-05-21
Great Listen!
Narrated really well by Will Patton, really enjoyable listen. Quirky writing style, Bubowski at his best, funny and dark. Love the way he describes his encounters. True master piece.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 23-11-18
classic Buk
Tales of Ordinary Madness is just classic Bukowski. Grimy, sleazy , grim and hilarious. The performance is great too. Well worth a credit. But the price Audible puts on books is ridiculous. Thieves. Shame on them.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Louis Raubenheimer
- 24-08-20
Soul-tourtured genius
Manic, mad and profoundly filthy. This was my first meaningful foray into the crusty mayhem of Bukowski. At times I ached inside, at others I was revolted. Brave, beyond brilliant, maybe the most honest writing I've ever encountered. I'm left touched, violated and in complete awe. Total genius.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tom Adams
- 06-11-22
If you’re a Bukowski fan, you won’t be disappointed
I’ve got the Bukowski bug at the moment. His poetry, his short stories, his videos. I’ve even got him on Spotify. This one I listened to as a (free) audio book. What is it about Bukowski that endears? Perhaps it’s an absolute honesty about his views of the world - and he displays them warts and all, here. There’s ladlefuls of cynicism, grit, pathos, vulnerability; but also some moments when you see him appreciate the beauty in odd places - an admiration of another writer’s poetry, or the simple pleasures of a good beer or cheap bottle of wine.
With these stories you get autobiographical fiction. You know he’s drawing heavily on his experiences, but they’re often blown up into exaggerations and surreal imaginings so you don’t know where reality ends and fantasy begins.
If you’ve read Post Office or Factotum, then the same style persists. Direct, funny, straight to the point, yet with incredible insights into human nature.
Something that shocked even me (a fan of horror and dark fantasy) was Bukowski’s casual misogyny and sometimes racism as expressed through his characters. His use of the word ‘rape’ rather than any sense of relationship-based intimacy made me squirm at times. This set of stories often reads like the diary of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung character. How should we deal with this? We could reject these stories as the indulgences of a dirty old alcoholic, choose to put the book down as a matter of principle. Yet, I listened to them all through to the end and thought about how Bukowski might have responded or evolved after the ‘Me Too’ revolution. I like to think he’d have considered the changing societal landscape with sensitivity and reflected with a different, yet similar directness. We will never know - he died in 1994, after all. Others may take a different view.
A word about the narrator, Will Patton. His rendition of Bukowski’s earthy personality infuses these readings and you can just imagine the author himself narrating them. Patton’s voice is a little deeper than Bukowski”s but the tones and inflections are all the author’s. The fact that he was reading these shorts often carried me through the more mundane or tooth-grinding portions. Yes - objectively, these stories aren’t perfection, but if you’re a Bukowski fan, you won’t be disappointed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Klein
- 28-05-19
Unmissable experience
Happy to have bathed in the Bukowski world. A must listen to anyone with an open mind.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bennie The Ball
- 08-12-17
Well Read
Sounds great, good voices, the right voice for bukowski could have even gone more whiskey/cigarette rough, even drunk and smoking continuously might have worked, missing lines, making bits up! Well....maybe not. NEED MORE BUKOWSKI -- NEED ALL BUKOWSKI -- NEED POETRY -- WILLING TO EXCHANGE MONEY AND CREDITS
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-09-21
Bukowski rules , but,,,,,,
I think Bukowski should be read, and not listende to. It’s a huge difference .
The narrator is good, but he’s no Bukowski. Find Buk on YouTube. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
I’ve been reading Bukowski for over 30 years, and I know how I want it to be 😊
Thanx to Audible for making this book “free” in the plan I’m paying for!
About time, to be honest.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leon
- 27-01-20
Brilliantly dark
Awesome narrator, he really made the madness feel alive. It was funny and dark and brilliant but mad. This is the first Bukowski book I've read. He's brilliantly insightful but bitterly sad. Very very much recommend this book.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Harry Stone
- 21-06-19
Misogyny makes decent prose unpalatable
Starts strong, great narration and some excellent prose. Does what is says on the tin APART from being intensely misogynistic. And by misogynistic I mean lines like “I planned to rape her” every few minutes.
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5 people found this helpful