Run with the Hunted [Paperback]

Martin begins his collection with Ham-on-Rye, Bukowski's novel, written about his childhood. The family scenario it depicts is one of a child living in a dysfunctional family, whose patriarch is an unstable cruel insecure man. It seems to have been a lonely childhood, one where the young "Chinaski" fails to fit in with the normal kids in school, or with his family at home. There are some happy memories, but there are many sad, uncomfortable recollections. The poetry and stories Martin selects reinforce these memories, and delve deeper into the emotions the young Bukowski experienced. They also give us a glimpse into an America in depression, before F.D.R.'s " New Deal," where poverty was widespread, mass unemployment hit many households, misery seemed the overriding emotion in life. This is not to say the writing is all "doom and gloom," it is not. Bukowski's eternal optimism and ability to derive pleasure from the most unlikely of circumstances is almost always discernible in Martins selections.

Martin moves on chronologically, with excerpts from Factotum and Post Office. With the poet now in his young 'man-hood', we are presented with a life that is sometimes exhilarating, sometimes dark and depressing. It was a hard, sometimes lonely existence, and the poetry Martin includes lets us into the young mans emotions in a way that is not possible in the novel or the short story. The tone is often dark and at times suicidal, but Bukowski's essential love of life and optimism is never utterly defeated.

The short stories that Martin uses are mainly from South of no North and these again are to a degree semi-autobiographical, however they also include more pure fiction, some fantastical even, written with the skill of a writer very much at home in the genre. Even in this fantastical short-stories Bukowski's concern is with those on the lower social scale, the real people who have to fight the real fights, with landlords, bad teeth, unfaithful partners and so on.

When Martin introduces excerpts from 'Women' we find that Bukowski's life has changed somewhat. Older now he has given up the security of the post office to try and make it, writing full time. He is nervous and insecure, yet he writes his first novel in seventeen nights. Bukowski has achieved a modicum of fame at this stage and has built up a small army of female fans, most of whom seem to end up in his bed. Again away from the necessary limitations the novel imposes we get a deeper indication of the authors emotions in the poems. Some of the poems Martin includes are the love poems referred to in the novel and are not your conventional love poems. They are crude, bawdy, funny, raw and passionate.

Finally the book ends with excerpts from "Hollywood," Bukowski's account of the period when he was writing the screenplay for the movie "Barfly", directed by Babet Schroeder. Bukowski has mellowed somewhat by this point but his writing does not suffer for it and retains the edge and humour. The same is true of the poetry , taken from "Septuagenarian Stew..." Again the poetry seems the best window to the soul of the poet as we find him ruminating on his well lived life and squaring up to death as he feels its breath on his neck as he hunches over the typewriter. As one would expect Bukowski deals with this sad subject matter in a way that is completely devoid of maudlin self pity.

John Martins' task in compiling Run With the Hunted must surely have been daunting. Bukowski was a prolific writer throughout his life with most of the work to the same high standard. Therefore fitting this body of work into 'reader' format was no small task, but then editing the writing of Charles Bukowski was something John Martin did for a large part of his adult life, his company Black Sparrow Press with its unique presentation, being an integral part of the Bukowski reading experience. However, as was necessary, there is a huge amount of work unmetioned, not represented in this book. Therefore to the virgin Bukowski reader this book offers a mere taste of the brilliance of the man, an irrefutable invitation to delve deeper into the world of Charles Bukowski. To the Bukowski addict it is a welcome addition to the collection, a celebration of the life's work of a genius still shunned by the literary establishment, and an excuse to reread some old friends.