Run with the hunted

For five decades, Charles Bukowski's writing has depicted life on the edge with an unflinchingly mordant clarity that has earned him millions of devotees all over the world. Here is the first comprehensive collection of the best of Bukowski's autobiographical stories, novels, and poems, and it brings into razorsharp focus the counterculture idol's astonishing life and work. Bukowski's crisp, gritty, highly personal writing chronicles his spectacularly extreme life, with its mingling strings of odd jobs, unusual women, inspired debauches, matter-of-fact desperation, and literary triumphs. Run with the Hunted weaves these strings together in a manner that is as appropriate for Bukowski's work as it is unusual for an anthology. It is arranged chronologically, not by its contents' original publication dates but by the period in Bukowski's life that each entry covers. As such, it transcends the realm of anthology and becomes something very like Bukowski's memoir. Beginning with his first recollection of consciousness (as a toddler under a table in 1922) and culminating with wry septuagenarian reflections, Run with the Hunted is packed with dispassionately eloquent accounts of his hard life - from brutal childhood to reluctant stardom - and crystalline observations of life at large. Compiled by John Martin, Bukowski's longtime friend and editor, this landmark volume distills the essence of a prodigious life's work and offers a sometimes harrowing, invariably exhilarating reading experience.