On Cats, Charles Bukowski
On Cats, Charles Bukowski
List: $11.99 | Sale: $8.40
Club: $5.99

On Cats

Author: Charles Bukowski

Narrator: Roger Wayne

Unabridged: 1 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 12/01/2015


Synopsis

A raw and tenderly funny look at the human-cat relationship, from one of our most treasured and transgressive writers.“The cat is the beautiful devil.”Felines touched a vulnerable spot in Charles Bukowski’s crusty soul. For the writer, there was something majestic and elemental about these inscrutable creatures he admired, sentient beings whose searing gaze could penetrate deep into our being. Bukowski considered cats to be unique forces of nature, elusive emissaries of beauty and love.On Cats offers Bukowski’s musings on these beloved animals and their toughness and resiliency. He honors them as fighters, hunters, survivors who command awe and respect as they grip tightly onto the world around them: “A cat is only ITSELF, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.”Funny, moving, tough, and caring, On Cats brings together the acclaimed writer’s reflections on these animals he so admired. Bukowski’s cats are fierce and demanding—he captures them stalking their prey; crawling across his typewritten pages; waking him up with claws across the face. But they are also affectionate and giving, sources of inspiration and gentle, insistent care.Poignant yet free of treacle, On Cats is an illuminating portrait of this one-of-a-kind artist and his unique view of the world, witnessed through his relationship with the animals he considered his most profound teachers.

About Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski is one of America’s best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in 1920 in Andernach, Germany, to an American soldier father and a German mother, and brought to the United States at the age of two. He was raised in Los Angeles and lived there for over fifty years. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.Abel Debritto, a former Fulbright scholar and current Marie Curie fellow, works in the digital humanities. He is the author of Charles Bukowski, King of the Underground, and the editor of the Bukowski collections On Writing, On Cats, and On Love.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mutasim on August 28, 2020

my cat shit in my archives he climbed into my Golden State Sunkist orange box and he shit on my poems my original poems saved for the university archives. that one-eared fat black critic he signed me off. On Cats is a collection of musings, poetry, essays, photographs and excerpts from novels, all relat......more

Goodreads review by Emily on April 29, 2023

I love cats and I love Bukowski and so it was natural that I loved this book! I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it at the library and then of course I had to borrow it. I particularly loved the photos of Bukowski and his cats. Also the way he talks about his own cats, his love for them and t......more

Goodreads review by Lynx on March 29, 2016

A book of Bukowski's short pieces and poetry all about his love of cats? Admittedly I was sold before I cracked a page. Bukowski's love and admiration for his feline friends shines through every page and it's easy to see why. His rough-and-tumble group of strays share so many of the writers traits i......more

Goodreads review by Dave on August 05, 2018

Bukowksi has a reputation for writing, often amusingly, about his experiences with booze and women. But if you know his writing, you also know he loves and writes about cats. This collection is obviously made for cat lovers, some poems, some sections of his Chinaski novels. The opening piece about Bu......more

Goodreads review by robin on August 16, 2024

The Beautiful Devil Charles Bukowski (1920 -- 1994) was once an underground, cult figure but his reputation has grown since his death. His poetry, novels, and stories continue to be read and a steady stream of his writings has been published posthumously. "On Cats" is part of a trilogy of recent Buko......more