novelist and screenwriter John Fante, who also admired Hamsun. In fact, Bukowski’s favorite author was L.A. This tradition is by no means at odds with the classics of modern alienation. Kirsch does not mention an equally coherent tradition to which Bukowski belongs, one that includes some of the most notable fiction and film produced in Los Angeles during his lifetime. “He was especially fond of Hamsun’s ‘Hunger,’ the story of a young writer demented by poverty and ambition.” While Bukowski’s literary ambitions were grandiose, he is, for Kirsch, essentially a genre writer: prolific, predictable, and popular. “He occasionally took pains to align himself with a coherent literary tradition, writing about his admiration for Dostoyevsky, Hamsun, Céline, and Camus - the classics of modern alienation, the biographers of the underground man,” Kirsch writes.

The pulp comparison is on point - in fact, Bukowski’s final novel, Pulp (1994), draws on the conventions of hard-boiled detective fiction - but Kirsch also mentions Bukowski’s efforts to place himself in more reputable literary company. “The effect is as though some legendary tough guy, a cross between Philip Marlowe and Paul Bunyan, were to take the barstool next to you, buy a round, and start telling his life story.” “They are strongly narrative, drawing from an endless supply of anecdotes that typically involve a bar, a skid-row hotel, a horse race, a girlfriend, or any permutation thereof.” That combination made a strong impression on readers. “Bukowski’s poems are best appreciated not as individual verbal artifacts but as ongoing installments in the tale of his true adventures, like a comic book or a movie serial,” he observes. Writing for The New Yorker in 2005, Adam Kirsch claims that Bukowski’s liminal status and seedy persona were part of his appeal: “He is one of those writers whom each new reader discovers with a transgressive thrill.” Describing his verse as “pulp poetry,” Kirsch also notes the author’s penchant for autobiography.

And yet his books, including his poetry, have sold millions of copies in more than a dozen languages. HALF A CENTURY AFTER the publication of Post Office (1971), how should we understand Charles Bukowski’s literary achievement? His publisher predicted that Bukowski would never reach a mainstream audience.

Pulp by Charles Bukowski