Spinning Off Bukowski - Steve Richmond

 

I am very purposefully going out as little as possible these days but made the trek out to a local bookstore that was sadly closing its doors and selling off their stock. I had never heard of this book but, being a Buk acolyte, I thought I'd see what this was about.

Richmond was an aspiring poet in the mid-60's who had self published his own debut book when he first met Bukowski. They became friends/drinking buddies and spent a fair amount of time together at each other's pads.While being a huge Buk fanatic, Richmond does not try to emulate his style, but his story telling is oddly detailed to the point of minutia in an unnecessary and almost annoying way - very different from Buk's use of detail, somehow. The story and the characters are interesting/compelling but there's something about Richmond's style that's a bit off-putting to me for some reason. Maybe he's trying too hard, in a way, maybe he's too insecure, maybe it's a bit of homophobia, maybe it's his Buk-worship - I can't say for sure, but it doesn't flow for me. I've got to say that I feel that I'm too much of Buk fan, in a way, as well, and I'll admit that a lot of Buk's fave writers tend not to click for me.

In any case, this gives the reader another viewpoint on Bukowski from someone who hung with him and knew many of the characters that Buk would write about. I'm glad that I found this but I have to say that I don't see myself looking out for any other Richmond works.