Hollywood audiobook

”The racetrack was important to me because it allowed me to forget that I was supposed to be a writer. Writing was strange. I needed to write, it was like a disease, a drug, a heavy compulsion, yet I didn’t like to think of myself as a writer. Maybe I had met too many writers. They took more time disparaging each other than they did doing their work. They were fidgets, gossips, old maids; they bitched and knifed and they were full of vanity. Were these our creators? Was it always thus? Probably so. Maybe writing was a form of bitching. Some just bitched better than others.”Henry “Hank” Chinaski can’t believe he is still alive. His hard drinking, hard living contemporaries are all dead. He is the last barfly standing. He has simplified his life, married a good woman, cut down his drinking, quit eating sugar and red meat, and relaxes by going to the racetrack everyday. The diseased part of his life, the writing, is still there humming in the back of his brain, regardless of how much he drinks or how many horse races he watches. He has to write. ”I was hot with words.”After decades of being poor and ignored, he finally gets his chance when Hollywood comes calling and wants him to write a screenplay. He doesn’t write screenplays, but the money they are offering is outrageous. He decides he won’t write a great one, but he is quite capable of writing a good one. ”A bird flies, a snake crawls, I change typewriter ribbons.”There is no way to prepare for Hollywood. The movie is on. The movie is off. The egos, the pettiness, the illogical thinking, the extravagant gestures, the insecurities, and the constant upheaval is at first stressful for Hank, but as he starts to get his bearings the whole situation becomes more amusing. It really is no different than when he worked for the Post Office. His wife Sarah sums him up. ”Your greatest strength,” said Sarah, “is that you fear everything.”“I wish I’d said that.”There can be a certain serenity achieved when you finally realize that everything is to be feared, that nothing, nobody, and nowhere are safe. Death and pain can find you anywhere. Henry has experienced more than his share of disappointment, criticism, and loss, and now that he has finally scored a big financial hit... he is bemused. He has made enemies with his writing. ”My enemies are the source of half my income. They hate me so much that it becomes a subliminal love affair.” He never pulled any punches. The more people rail against his writing the more copies he sells. Women think he hates them, but it is much more complicated than that. He just doesn’t treat them any different that he treats anyone else. He talks about a novelist, someone not unlike himself, who he admires. ”What I liked best about him was that he had no fear of the feminists. He was one of the last defenders of maleness and balls in the U.S. This took guts. I wasn’t always pleased with his literary output but I wasn’t always pleased with mine either. “”The booze loosened those typewriter keys, gave them some spark and gamble.” Like the actor that does cocaine before a performance, or the stockbroker who takes speed before giving a million dollar pitch, or the car salesman who can only be who he feels he needs to be when he is on meth, Hank performs better, writes better, when he has been drinking...heavily. A large percentage of our population self-medicate for several different reasons, maybe to ward off depression, maybe to perform at a perceived higher level beyond ourselves, or maybe in an attempt to escape everything. Tune in. Tune out. We are forced to be someone other than ourselves for too many hours a day. Sometimes we need help to escape, and sometimes we need help finding ourselves again. Henry Chinaski is Charles Bukowski’s alter ego. Most, if not all, of Bukowski’s work is autobiographical, so whatever happens to Chinaski in some form or fashion probably happened to Bukowski. When Bukowski was approached by Hollywood to write a movie script, the result was the critically acclaimed movie Barfly (1987) starring Mickey Rourke. There is this poignant scene in the book where Henry and Sarah go to see the movie at the theater and arrive early, so they can see how many people come out of the theater from the early showing. One, Two, five, eleven, and on and on. I understand that need for validation. It is impossible to separate Bukowski from his books which is maybe why the criticism stings him more because those being critical aren’t judging his books or his characters, but judging him. If you’ve never read a Charles Bukowski, and you want to ease into his work, this is probably the best place to start. He isn’t as irreverent or crude or “misogynistic” or as perverse as his other books. You’ll meet a baffled survivor, unsure of why he has been given all this extra time and wondering how much more he is going to have to do. As long as he lives, he will have to write and that is exactly what Bukowski did. If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.comI also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

Hollywood, Charles Bukowski Hollywood is a 1989 novel by Charles Bukowski which fictionalizes his experiences of adapting his novel into the film Barfly. It is narrated in the first person. This book relates his experiences of working with a director, finding financial backing, losing financial backing, writing the screenplay and finally completing the film.تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پنجم ماه می سال2012میلادیعنوان: هالیوود؛ نویسنده: چارلز بوکفسکی؛ مترجم: پیمان خاکسار؛ نشر تهران، چشمه، سال1389، در299ص، شابک9789643627218؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20مبوکفسکی، در دوران کاری‌ خویش، یک فیلم‌نامه، به سفارش دوستش: «باربه شرودر»، نگاشتند؛ رمان «هالیوود» روایتی خنده دار از روند نوشته شدن فیلم‌نامه، و ساخته شدن فیلم آن است؛ در این رمان «بوکفسکی» با خیلی‌ها شوخی کرده اند؛ کتابهای جنجال برانگیز بسیاری درباره ی زندگی در «هالیوود» وجود دارند، اما هیچکدام به اندازه ی این رمان، شاعرانه به آب و آتش نزده اند؛ کتاب «هالیوود» را میتوان شرحی داستانی از یادمانهای «بوکفسکی» برای نگارش فیلمنامه در خیال خوانشگر نشاند؛ داستانی از درازای سفری پرفراز و فرود، و بدل شدن از یک شاعر به یک فیلمنامه نویس است، نویسنده با شماری از ستاره های شناخته شده ی سینما رودررو میشوند و از پوچی و خودشیفتگی های برخی افراد کوشا در صنعت فیلمسازی نیز پرده برمیدارندتاریخ بهنگام رسانی 05/02/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 20/12/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I loved this book. See a lot of 'eh' reviews. Have no idea if it's my own involvement in film, writing and Los Angeles of the past that makes this tale a spark of real life. I believe it's the writing alone that does it.This is Bukowski as Bukowski, not 'Hank'.'Hollywood' was and still is a pleasure to read. A must have for any screen writer, rags to riches bum, alcoholic literary being, or the real reason to read Buk or Fante.. the Clean Line.It's the story of 'Barfly' (a Bukowski book) and the making of that film. It starred Mickey O'Rourke. Bukowski had such a wonderful time seeing the project through and it shows in this work. It is a peek into the real life of an icon.Seems readers either love him or hate him. I met him in a bar, in Long Beach in the very early 80's, and thought that he was a consummate asshole.Based on a personal experience I refused to read any more of his work and filled myself with righteous indignation.What an ass. Me. Not Buk.The man could write.Hollywood is a personal story, filled with the real feelings and observations of an author finally revered for their work. Finally taken seriously. Finally able to let his personal side and thoughts of his life come out. It is quite different than any of his other writings. Well, so was Pulp. Pulp however... was pretty damned bad Bukowski.Hollywood! Dig it babies.

Hollywood is a thinly-veiled first-person account of Charles Bukowski's encounter with the Hollywood film world during the writing, financing, casting, production, promotion, and premiere of Barfly. In a 1987 interview on a Barfly set with Roger Ebert, Bukowski briefly sets the scene leading up tp the the novel's opening:http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/..."I picked up this phone one day and it was (Director Barbet) Schroeder calling from Paris. I'm drinking, I hung up. Never heard of him. You meet a lot of phonies. I hang up, he calls back, he wants me to write a movie for him. I tell him I hate movies. He mentions $20,000. I ask him when he's coming over." Bukowski, in his usual guise as Henry Chinaski, reports the goings on with almost anthropological detachment - almost because he is both repelled and fascinated by Hollywood’s upper crust. HE notes on the first page that the inhabitants of Marina del Ray (“Sailboat Lane”): "in their special sailing clothes, caps, (and) dark shades… had apparently escaped the daily grind of life”:“we have just landed on the outpost of death. My soul is puking” says Buk to companion Sarah.Soon Bukowski’s revulsion is replaced by sardonic amusement as he hits up hosts and associates for red wine at every opportunity. His would-be friends are only too willing to accommodate.It’s been some years since I read Hollywood, so I resorted to Amazon’s LOOK HERE! preview. Bukowski’s dry humor – often self-deprecating – is apparent early on. The prose and circumstances are so delicious that the reader WANTS it to be non-fiction – WANTS the glossy movie people to be that facile and self-involved – WANTS Bukowski to be that self-possessed (even though in the final analysis he’ll do damn near anything for another bottle.)By the second chapter, Buk decides that to be a scold will soon wear thin so he decides to see something of the likeable real selves beneath the shiny veneers worn by his newly introduced intimates. At this point it’s fair to note that the look, production values, and extremely limited distribution on first release indicates that Barfly was an “independent” film. IMDB backs this up with its estimated $3-million budget matched by an equally small $3-million box office figure. The point is that Hollywood is not A-List anthropology – it’s rather a glimpse a of somewhat less-rarified film world that comingles wealth with insecurity. Money is scarce, promises are broken, new friendships are easy to make and easier to break. Dejection alternates with elation as a busted deal is replaced by a new transitory pledge to support the film. Bukowski’s devotees claim that Hollywood is not “his best”, but I’ll say that my reacquaintance compels me to find a copy and relish it once again.

Bukowski’s least vulgar and most uplifting novel. Here we see Chinaski as an old man who finally has some success. He’s married, he’s found booze equilibrium, he’s established as an honest to god author. This would be an interesting entry point for new bukowski readers. The narrator is more reflective and positive than I can remember from any of his short stories or other novels. (An aside: I’ve not read them all, but I’ve read most.) As such,I wonder how a reader would feel about him if he/she started here. Would the anger of his earlier works astonish them more than if they began by reading them? Would they even want to read Ham on Rye or Post Office after finishing this? Hollywood is honestly a pretty boring book, but because of Bukowski’s transformation (and his style) I found it difficult to put down. Anyway, this is a true five star book and I’m glad to see some of the heart that the old man had. Vintage Bukowski quote follows: You gobble your own wienie under a sky of vomit!

I have a soft spot for Bukowski, have had one since my days in community college and the early days of my time at university. That being said, I wouldn't call him a "great" author with the likes of Shakespeare, Kafka, Joyce, but, in an odd way, I don't think he was ever "meant" to be one of those kinds of authors. And no one seemed more honest about this than Buk himself. He dedicated his last book "Pulp" "to bad writing" (or something to that effect) and on his gravestone itself are inscribed the words "Don't Try". This isn't to say that the man wasn't arrogant, and perhaps a bullshitter in the leagues of Mailer or Hemingway, far from it. I fell in love with the Romantic life he regularly depicted in his novels and poems not knowing (or not wanting to know) how much of it was true and how much of it might have been nonsense exaggeration about a class of people that life decided to lean on. It was Bukowski's world equally demarcated (or perhaps not) between searing honesty and bullshit boasting of a sad and angry man. But, that considered, it can be said that in a sense, you could call Bukowksi's oeuvre young boy's adventure literature...for men in their twenties wanting desperately to experience something beyond sheltered suburbia.But Bukowksi had and still has something in his writing that many other (even ostensibly superior) writers lack. It's hard to put a label on what it is. Part of it is his incredible sense of place. He writes about Los Angeles in a way that no other writer, native to LA or not, has been able to. Under Buk's pen it's a city at once home and alienating, full of possibility and yet bereft of all hope of change or progress. It's less a city and more a confluence of shadows and lights, not much there, until there is. Added to this, was Buk's ability to delineate and describe despair in a way that was almost heroic. True, sometimes his writing smacked of overreaching, riding off into cliche every now and again (Hollywood is no exception) but overall Buk had a mastery of the dour and frustrating, the angst ridden and the despairing, in a way reminiscent of an almost messier and less transcendent Kafka. But now on to the book itself. Hollywood was Bukowski's penultimate novel, written about the time when the film "Barfly" was being created (with Bukowski's penning the screenplay) essentially telling the story of Charles Bukowski. The story is pure Buk, lots of drinking, swearing, ribald jokes and generally wry observations about the human condition and the madness of artistry, any artistry. The book isn't one of Buk's best, but it's still very good. Most of the characters are peripheral to "Hank" which makes sense given the character of both "the character" and the author writing him. However, the character "Sarah" (Henry's wife) gets the worst of this treatment as she seems less a character and more a female helper to Hank with little to no actual personality. But where the book scores big is with Bukowski's rendering of tone. I won't bullshit you and say that Bukowksi could "sense his end was near" but there's a relaxed tone of acceptance, humor, and a marked decrease in the fury and despair of the Bukowski of "Factotum" and "Post Office". The dirty old man has found something akin to peace, if not happiness.So, read it, it's good, and goes down like a smooth shot. Hell, go see "Barfly" too, it's very 80's and Mickey Rourke is insanely over the top but much like Bukowski, he's good in such a way that even his fuck-ups are worth seeing, witnessing, and experiencing.