A review by aritacb
Love Is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski

dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

I usually enjoy Bukowski’s writing style, his realism, and his raw honesty in his poetry. However, the majority of the content in this particular book was absolutely deplorable. His later work from when he chilled out from his gross drunken man hoe years is much more readable. There was a handful of poems that were written in the way that made me like his work but I can no longer in good conscience keep this book on my shelf, if that tells you anything. I was already aware of his vulgarity but this was vomit inducing. His early work is definitely a no-go. This book was mainly comprised of the poems I would typically skip or hate in his other books. 

Apparently Harry Styles loves this book (🚩) but I would never recommend this unless you’d enjoy the debauched poetry of a drunk, depressed, nearly destitute, middle aged man. 

This only gets an extra half point for the very few poems l liked and because this was definitely reminiscent of beatnik literature. Kerouac would probably like this.
But in this era, only guys that hide how awful they are under being pretentious would like this crap. (like Matty Healy. iykyk lol)
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