Pulp
HarperCollins · Paperback · May 31, 2002
Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer's seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, this novel demonstrates Charles Bukowski's own brand of humor and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles.
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- Who it’s for
- A layered, playful mix of poetry and pulp that keeps turning the screw.
- Genres
- Private Eye Fiction, Hard-Boiled Mystery, Absurdist Fiction
- Published
- HarperCollins, May 31, 2002
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Opening with the exotic Lady Death entering the gumshoe-writer's seedy office in pursuit of a writer named Celine, this novel demonstrates Charles Bukowski's own brand of humor and realism, opening up a landscape of seamy Los Angeles. Bukowski’s final novel is a surreal pastiche of the classic Mickey Spillane, Chandleresque private dick novel.
Continue reading
Nick Belane, is a lonely, middle-aged, egotistical, alcoholic private detective who is badly in need of some lucrative work, but what he gets is a series of increasingly strange assignments from a bizarre collection of clients. He is asked to track down the long-dead French classical author Celine and an elusive red sparrow. He encounters aliens, heavies and even Lady Death herself. All the while, Belane is convincing himself that he’s still a white-hot detective and that nobody can take him for a ride, or indeed make him feel he’s losing his mind. Pulp is essential fiction from Buk himself.
Pulp and Wit
A layered, playful mix of poetry and pulp that keeps turning the screw.
Come here for
- pulp-and-poetry blur
- dry comedy, dark language
Expect
- sharp turns of language
- a rough-edged, literary voice
Where it sits
| Private Eye Fiction | 50% |
|---|---|
| Hard-Boiled Mystery | 45% |
| Absurdist Fiction | 33% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- The Classics
- Literary Fiction
- Hard-Boiled Mystery
- Hard Sci-Fi
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Suspense
- Crime Fiction
- Satire
- Dark Humor
- Authors
- Charles Bukowski
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- May 31, 2002
- Format
- Paperback
- Reading lane
- The Classics