With his characteristic raw and minimalist style, Charles Bukowski takes us on a walk through his side of town in Hot Water Music.  He gives us little vignettes of depravity and lasciviousness, bite sized pieces of what is both beautiful and grotesque.The stories in Hot Water Music dash around the worst parts of town – a motel room stinking of sick, a decrepit apartment housing a perpetually arguing couple, a bar tended by a skeleton – and depict the darkest parts of human existence.  Bukowski talks simply and profoundly about the underbelly of the working class without raising judgement. In the way he writes about sex, relationships, writing, and inebriation, Bukowski sets the bar for irreverent art – his work inhabits the basest part of the mind and the most extreme absurdity of the everyday.

While I love the anecdotes, humor and insights, what really hooked me is Delicious Taco’s writing style. It is bare but not simple. He is a master of tone and pacing. His delivery is perfect and will give you fits of laughter. This isn’t the kind of book that will put you to sleep. It’s the kind of book that will keep you up all night turning to the next page and wondering, How is it possible that the messy parts of life are so fabulous? And why the heck do we try so hard to make life pristine when it’s the grit and dirt that gives it meaning?In conclusion: ten thousand stars

Books

More lists by Eamon Patrick McGee

Movies

Tv favorites