Skip to content
Scan a barcode
Scan
Added to your cart
Paperback Hollywood Book

ISBN: B00BG6Y8IC

ISBN13: 9780876857632

Hollywood

Select Format

Select Condition ThriftBooks Help Icon

Recommended

Format: Paperback

Condition: New

$14.70
Save $3.29!
List Price $17.99
50 Available
Ships within 24 hours

Book Overview

From iconic tortured artist/everyman Charles Bukowski, Hollywood is the fictionalization of his experience adapting his novel Barfly into a movie by the same name. Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter-ego, is pushed to translate a semi-autobiographical book into a screenplay for John Pinchot. He reluctantly agrees, and is thrust into the otherworld called Hollywood, with its parade of eccentric and maddening characters: producers, artists, actors and actresses, film executives and journalists. In this world, the artistry of books and film is lost to the dollar, and Chinaski struggles to keep his footing in the tangle of cons that comprise movie making. Hollywood is Dirty Old Man Bukowski at his most lucid. It overflows with curses, sex, and alcohol. And through it all, or from it all, Bukowski finds flashes of truth about the human condition.
More by Charles Bukowski
As famous for his notorious lifestyle as for his visceral poetry and prose, the late Charles Bukowski mined his experiences on America's mean streets to become one of the 20th century's most influential and widely imitated writers.

Customer Reviews

8 customer ratings | 6 reviews

Rated 1 stars
Not what I paid for

Paid for and ordered a hardcover copy from 1989. Received a paperback

0Report

Rated 5 stars
Entertaining but not his Best

I'm not sure exactly what to say about Hollywood. I certainly enjoyed it and always appreciate Bukowski at some level. In terms of his novels, I'd place this one behind Factotum, Post Office, and Women. Ham and Rye I have not yet read but will...unlike Pulp (whose subject matter does not appeal to me). I think that Hollywood's lack of edge--in comparison with his past achievements--reflects his newfound personal domesticity...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
The original barfly

Bukowski's humor is razor sharp in this book ostensibly on the making of "Barfly." Bukowski was enjoying some measure of success and even respect by this point, and was approached by Schroeder to write the screenplay for a movie about himself. Bukowski was of course flattered and took up the challenge. His books and poetry have always been about himself in one form or another, but here was his big chance to imagine himself...

0Report

Rated 5 stars
I Wish He Was Still Around

This had to be one of the most enjoyable books I've read in years. It's actually based on Bukowski's life and the events that lead up to and involve the making of his movie "Barfly." It's totally off the wall, but Bukowski's take on Hollywood's own particular brand of insanity is probably just as true today as it was when Charles Bukowski penned this masterpiece of the absurd. Definitely a great book from one of my favorite...

1Report

Rated 5 stars
barfly movie making process story

excellent story about how charles' BARFLY movie came to be. written in all honest candor and the trials an author has to endure throughout the system of getting this completed

0Report

Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
GoDaddy Verified and Secured