Büyük Zen Düğünü

by Charles Bukowski

Büyük Zen Düğünü Bukowski'den Öyküler "Arka koltuktayım, Romanya ekmeği, ciğer ezmesi, bira ve meşrubatların arısına sıkışmış; on yıl önce ölen babamın cenazesinden bu yana ilk kez bağladığım yeşil kravatımla. Şimdi bir Zen düğününde sağdıç olacaktım. Hollis saatte 130 kilometre sürüyor. Roy'un iki metrelik sakalı yüzüme uçuşuyor. Benim 62 model Comet arabamdayız ama ben kullanıyorum-sigorta yok, iki kez alkollü araba kullanmaktan enselenmişim ve zaten sarhoş olmaktayım. Hollis'le Roy üçsenedir beraber yaşıyorlar, Hollis sağlıyor geçimlerini. Arka koltukta oturmuş bira içiyorum. Roy bana tek tek Hollis'in aile fertlerin anlatıyor. Roy daha becerikli entelektüel palavralarla, ağzı laf yapıyor. Evlerinin duvarları ilgin fotoğraflarla kaplı...

Genres: Fiction, American

162 pages

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Henry Charles Bukowski (born as Heinrich Karl Bukowski) was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.It is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books

Charles Bukowski was the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to New York City to become a writer. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to give up writing in 1946 and spurred a ten-year stint of heavy drinking. After he developed a bleeding ulcer, he decided to take up writing again. He worked a wide range of jobs to support his writing, including dishwasher, truck driver and loader, mail carrier, guard, gas station attendant, stock boy, warehouse worker, shipping clerk, post office clerk, parking lot attendant, Red Cross orderly, and elevator operator. He also worked in a dog biscuit factory, a slaughterhouse, a cake and cookie factory, and he hung posters in New York City subways.

Bukowski published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he went on to publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including Pulp (1994), Screams from the Balcony (1993), and The Last Night of the Earth Poems (1992).

He died of leukemia in San Pedro on March 9, 1994.

Reviews

[Adem Yüce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delilik mi? Neden olmasın? Ne delilik değildir ki? Yaşam delilik değil mi? Kurulmuş oyuncaklar gibiyiz.birkaç kez kuruluyoruz, bitince güle güle ve ortalıkta dolanıp varsayımlarda bulunur, planlar yapar, valiler seçer, çimlerimizi biçeriz...

[chickienuggies™ · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars, rounded to 2 stars 'cause I've read worse

Read like a poorly conceived fanfiction of some kind. For over half of the story, I felt like I had a bit of an aneurism while reading it, but then the style or whatever it is did get a bit better somewhere after that. Perhaps this was done to reflect Bukowski's drunkenness, but I feel like it just was not effective ultimately.

MC sucks tbh, all he did was intentionally make a fool of himself, be hella creepy, and then complain about being jailed while also romanticizing it lol. But it's really not that deep. Man just seems like a trashy human being, and he knows it, but with this he ends up being a pick-me boy who insists he's not like the other boys. That's all pretty much, less than mid.

[Vladimir (mecha_yota) Altukhov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not the “slice of life” you'd expect when you hear these words.

For me, it is a type of the story you hate, but at the same time find curious.

I hate it for the protagonist, his actions, his morale, his philosophy. He considers himself to be the only alive person on the mentioned wedding, labeling the other participants as dead souls. In reality, Bukowski turns out to be the biggest jerk of them all: 1) being constantly drunk as hell; 2) making disgusting hints towards a child; 3) starting a fight for e a r s; 4) trying to rape a woman etc.

I find it hard to sympathize with such people for personal reasons. Even though, I'm well aware some of them end up on that path thanks to some unforeseen consequences or the reasons that were rolled even before their birth. It doesn't change my opinion on them to anything but disgust.

The type of writing made the story too rushed, deprived of any details, that usually serve as a way to make the narration more whole. Sometimes it was even difficult for me to understand what was going on at all, so I had to check the translation made in my native language. This kind of writing reminded me of a rushed diary entry, in which the author didn't describe much, since they themselves knew the entire picture of what had been happening that day.

As for the curious part, I was invested in seeing the world through the eyes of such a character. It surely is a unique experience, which makes you understand these people better. Unfortunately, said personal experience can't make me sympathize with them.

One thing I liked was the final scene with the policemen. Bukowski contemplated on how people always try to associate themselves with something greater, while not paying attention to what is happening right in front of them. Sadly, this tendency grows more popular these days.

P.S. Don't try to steal people's ears. You'd probably just get beaten up.

[cant bug · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guy doesn't sugar coat his words. I like the way this is written. It's personal, humourous and honest.

"Gentlemen, I would never attempt to rape two ladies at the same time." What a line.

The set of balls Bukowski has to say what he likes is admirable.

Behind the humour, the drunken sexual harraasments and violence of his character, there is a rightful disdain for the human race. For the people he is surrounded by at the wedding. He is bored by their lack of humanity.

He is the only one to get the wedding couple a gift - a rather creative choice of a coffin. Touching. When he later leaves the wedding and smashes his head on the sidewalk, the couple drive past without checking if he is alright.

So who are the real jerks of the story? It would be easy to paint Bukowski's character as a sleazy scumbag, but he isn't devoid of humanity. Quite the opposite. It's the people at the wedding who are the real jerks.

Having said that, the whole biased first person perspective means that all the characters are skewed towards how Bukowski sees them. Not how they really are. Regardless, I like his perspectives on people.

He's a better poet than short story writer though. Some of his poems made me Feel Things, but this story doesn't do that - though it does get in a few laughs. Also the actual plot of the story isn't that eventful or interesting, but the way it's written makes it 100% worth a read. Overall, 3 stars. Not baaad.

[Demir · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What’s the necktie for?”
“The top of the zipper on my pants is broken. And my shorts are too tight. End of necktie covers stinkhairs just above my cock.”
“I think that you are the modern living master of the short story. Nobody touches you.”
“Sure, Harvey. Where’s the scotch?”

[Gözde · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bukowski'yi sevebilmeyi isterdim. Ama olmuyor....

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book, the man clearly knows how to write, in the same vein of Vonnegut or Heller

[Mina S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derleme kitaplari sevmiyorum. Bir de bukowski okumak modunda degilmisim demekki.

[Baran Gok · Rating 2 out of 5]

"bir insanı neyin yiyip bitirdiğini asla bilemezsiniz. belli bir kafa durumuna gelmişseniz en basit şeyler bile korkunç problemlere dönüşebilirler ve en kötü endişe/korku/ acı yogunluğu, açıklayamadığın, anlayamadığın, aklına bile gelmeyendir. üstünüze metal bir levha gibi yığılır ve ondan kurtuluş yoktur."
sf.122

[Ozan Pektas · Rating 3 out of 5]

20 yılı aşkın sonra (nam-ı değer alter egosu) Hank Chinaski ile tekrar ince bir kitapla bi araya geldik. Kitabın ilk sayfalarında* gayri ihtiyari ''Bu ergen ruhlu ihtiyar galiba bu sefer sempatiden ziyade naftalin tadı verecek'' diye düşünmüştüm komik şekilde zira ben 22 sene sonra okusam da Bukoswki aynı Bukoswki idi..

Kitabın başları beni çok açmasa da sayfalara devam ettikçe nostaljik atmosferdeki akıcılığa kendimi bıraktım. Sevdiğim bazı kitaplardaki yer yer mizahi insan manzaraları da burada beni yakalayınca ince kitap anında bitiverdi..Damağımda bıraktığı tat diğer okuyucu yorumlarının aksine gayet hafif ve tatlıydı..

(* Gerçekten Californication'daki Hank Moody'nin abartılı bölümlerinden birine denk gelmiş gibi bir his verdi)

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable short story by Bukowski (or his self styled alter ego: Henry Chinaski); forever weary and skeptic of all things human, you get to experience the events through the eyes and mind of Bukowski, who both shows the superficiality and 'performative nature' of the proceedings but at the same time highlights the deeply human need for connection and meaning.

[Lannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The definitive drunken uncle story. You know there's truth to it, you love the quirky embellishments, you hate half the things he says but love the way he says them, and in the end he feels like his little anecdote says something grander about the human experience than it really does.

[Vansh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly more entertaining than the previous ones but all of it feels so absurd yet something similar to nothingness. I know it isn’t nothingness cause that (to me) is a lack of feeling, this on the other hand is simply just is. How’d you describe it? Existence?

[burak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dili eğlenceli fakat biraz fazla erotik.

[Bengü Güven]

Yazarın dili argo, farklı geldi. Sevdiğimi söyleyemem.

[Gökçe Aytekin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kısacık yorumlamak ya da tanımlamak gerekirse kitabı, kara mizahın bir örneği diyebiliriz sanırım. Denemeye değer

[Bruce Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am not sure why I liked this crude and disjointed essay, but I did. Maybe I liked it because it was crude and disjointed.

[Onur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.

[Marlowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I either want both your motherfuckin’ ears or your motherfuckin’ outfit”