Customer Reviews
My favourite Buk book - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 22 Oct 2008 
"I was 50 years old & hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years. I had no women friends. I looked at them as i passed them on the streets or wherever i saw them, but i looked at them without yearning & with a sense of futility. The idea of having a relationship with a woman was beyond my imagination."
Low-life writer & unrepentant alcoholic Bukowski aka Henry Chinaski writes about beer, cheap cigars, gambling & relationships with women.
"Women" is a semi-autobiographical novel that revolves around Henry Chinaski, a 50 yer old poet. Henry's finally beginning to experience some professional success, & he's milking it for all it's worth by indulgingin alcohol; blowing his money at the track, & sleeping with as many women as he can get his nicotine stained hands on. I lost count of the number of women Henry screwsin this book, but it's astronomically high, & every sexual encounter is describedin very graphic detail "Steve McQueen would not have done better."
However, this isn't just a run-down of all the women Henry's been with. It's also an honest look at a life that's a lot less fulfilling than it may look on the outside, & an alcoholic man who's actually a pretty sad case.
I loved "Women". It comes straight from the heart. I love the author's writing style & Henry is a fantastic character, but he really doesn't seem to evolve much over the course of the novel, & things just got a bit monotonous towards the end as it is the longest Bukowski book printed.
PS. If you think Bukowski has no heart, no soul & is closed off to feelings of love/tenderness i recommend you read his poetry to see how wrong you are. 'One for old Snaggle-tooth' is a casein point.
Brendan Clarke.
But not for women... - By: Love Books, 18 Jun 2008 
I completely agree with the previous reviewer who said that this book has no heart & no tenderness. It is maybe the point that the narrator is repulsive & gross & treats women just like slabs of meat but it doesn't make for enjoyable reading, not to me, & the way the women behave is so untrue to life. You might get one woman like that, but not a whole string of them. And for a book about sex it's one hundred per cent unsexy. Our hero spends his life drinking & then vomiting. I just didn't see the pointin writing, or reading a book like this. I honestly wouldn't bother. Sorry.
Don't have the heart to give it three stars - By: William the Almost Great, 31 May 2008 
I know Bukowski fans are going to be upset with me, but I couldn't warm to this book, the same way I couldn't warm to TROPIC OF CANCER. It was just too raw & "down" for my taste. Still, I read it from cover to cover.
Bukowski's style is certainly unique & I have to admit I was drawn in, but some of the terms & descriptions were too much for me. Perhaps I was expecting more a "Hunter Thompson" type of book, with an edge but also some dash of flippancy. True, there is humourin WOMEN, but it was just a bit too edgy for my taste---and I've read NAKED LUNCH!
What I find infinitely more fascinating than Bukowski's books, is the man himself, though I realize you can't really separate the two of them. The man seems to actually have more of a followingin the UK thanin his own country, & I find this fascinating. If anyone can recommend a bio, please do. Again, I realize a lot of his work (okay, all of it) is terribly autobiographical, but I'd like to read the full-out other person's point of view on the man.
Graphic - By: Dillinger, 21 Apr 2008 This is one of the more graphic Bukowski novels and, at times, can get repetitive - but still his mixture of hatred & warmth makes it another highly readable novel.
Sorry Buko but a bit... boring - By: S. J. Lynch, 26 Sep 2007 
I popped my Bukowski cherry with Post Office & was enthralled, & my enchantment lasted through Ham on Rye, his short story collections, Pulp & some poetry collections. Most recently I read the excellent biography Charles Bukowski: Lockedin the Arms of a Crazy Life. It's not like I am unfamiliar with the themes & style of Mr B is what I'm saying. But Women really turned me off. It's the emptiness I guess. Evenin Post Office, even when he's at his lowest ebb, there's a vitality there which crackles & a tenderness, a human quality which is touching. That is absentin Women, & the drunk but interesting Chinaski is now the drunk but boring man you wish would go away & stop droning on. Same same same. Also the sheer amount of conquests is unbelievable. Maybe some women are drawn to fat ugly men with good legs, a jaded world view & serious drink problem. Even the lack of respect he habitually shows for most of these women is shallow & so unbelievable (though the women most of the time don't set themselves up for respect). It's like my uncle trying to be sexy & cool (no offence uncle m!) & failing miserably. There is no depth to any of it, no passion, no truth (and as a poet you need truth), no insight. I'm constantly reminded of a grumpy old man who wrinkles his nose at dirt & wishes to keep his hands clean - a trouser folder. This is especially true after reading the biography & accessing a clearer picture of the real Bukowski.
