Visceral Bukowski by Ben Pleasants is a memoir of a 20-year friendship with deep insights into the personal life of Charles Bukowski and the city of Los Angeles. Here are clear chapters on childhood friends, how Pleasants and Bukowski together rediscover John Fante, adventures in Hollywood, the women, the jobs, the booze and the writing; the way it really appened without the fiction.

“Pleasants offers a strikingly rich portrayal of Bukowski, a poet who was ‘alive and glowing in his place in time.’”
—Scott Timberg, Los Angeles Times

Ben Pleasants is a writer who writes about writers. As a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, he was the first writer in the U.S. to review Charles Bukowski in a major newspaper. His books of poetry include Airmail From Oblivion and 53 stations of the Tokaido. In the last decade he has concentrated on theatre. His last two plays have been about writers. “The Hemingway/Dos Passos Wars” has had two productions in Los Angeles. Laura Weiner of Backstage West said of the second “it’s a play so perfect, you forget to breathe.” “Contentious Minds: The Mary McCarthy/Lillian Hellman Affair” was produced in 2002. In recent months Pleasants has written about the writer Dan Fante. A chapter from his novel The Thrill of Agony and The Victory of Defeat was published in William and Mary Review in 2003. He is currently finishing a book of poetry, Fame is An Elevator Ride Up the Asshole of Time, and a book on L.A. writers in the 80’s titled Finding Fante.

Trade paperback, 232 pages - $15.95
6" x 9" - ISBN 0941543382

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