Bitching and moaning …

… Review: ‘On Writing,’ a Charles Bukowski Collection of Rants and Musings in Letters - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

… it’s hard … not to feel a certain sympathy toward Bukowski, at least as far as concerns his blamelessness for the structure of “On Writing,” which stacks the deck against him. Few artists are at their most thoughtful or generous when discussing the waters in which they must swim to further their careers, especially when kvetching with friends and railing against gatekeepers. The correspondence in this book has been first selected because it fits a theme, and then edited so that only the parts of each letter that relate to this theme are included, with missing material indicated by “[...].”