Customer Reviews
He didn't just write books about alcoholics and poverty. - By: Baby Dave, 29 Dec 2006 
Bukowski's final novel isn't the one he'll be remembered for, but it's easily the equal of his other great novels; Post Office, Factotum & Ham on Rye.
Pulp is known as his funniest novel but there's poignancy behind the humour, as Pulp features many ruminations on death & ageing. Death is a character, but instead of a traditional cloaked skeleton, Bukowski's personification of death is a blonde vixen in a red dress, who enlists the help of a private detective to find a French novelist who has tricked her into thinking he's already dead. Throughout the novel, Lady Death keeps reminding the detective that his time will come too, echoing Bukowski's own concerns about mortality.
Familiar Bukowski staples (bars, racetracks) keep his fans happy, but the rest of the novel shows a more surreal side to Bukowski, which had only been previously shown in some of his short stories. Pulp's triumph is in the fact that an old writer more used to gritty realism can write a novel packed with surrealism & still pass with flying colours.
meh - By: D. Muntal, 10 Jul 2006 
This novel was riddled with cliches & an unimpressive vocabulary consisting mainly of unoriginal four-letter curse words. A dead-end plot & the worn out misogynistic sentiment throughout also proved to be quite a turnoff. Granted, he's trying to make a point, a task at which he barely succeeds, but for Bukowski's reputation, I would expect better.
tireless - By: MR M WALSH, 22 Jul 2005 I hardly ever read books twice(obviously hadnt been reading the right books), Pulp was the first one that i knew i could quite easily pick up & saunter into. It holds, in a diluted form, everything that i know Bukowski for. In my opinion its an impulsive read & reallly enjoyable while still maintaining the grit that Bukowski wrote on. Good fun.
aye, not bad - By: Neil, 29 Jun 2005 
I didn't expect too much of this having read 'Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life', a Bukowksi biography that is decidedly reserved in it's praises of this, his last novel. I was pleasantly surprised. It is not a novel about Henry Chinaski though it does name check him, yet Bukowski's Belane character is essentiallly the same character; a hard drinking misfit spouting his weary view on life. The style you will recognise from Bukowski's previous novels, though this one has been given the form of a Chandler novel. Like Chandler's novels, the lead character is a tough guy; the sort of guy that it is clear the author would like to be.
Like Bukowski's other novels, this is very short, & therefore infectious to read & there are enough funny lines to make up for it's smalll failings. It may not be as great an achievement as Post Office, but I would say it's probably funnier. So it's worth spending the couple of hours it takes to read it.
You just can't fault the man... - By: P.R Mushy, 31 Oct 2003 This guy is the ultimate bad-ass, & Pulp is just another in a long line of mesmorising novels by Bukowski. He takes on a different persona in Nick Belane, but it's only a stone's throw away from Chinaski. The humour is still there, the hatred & despair is still there, & he is still piling on those classic one-liners that crease you up & shoot you down. Considering he was in his seventies when he wrote this it's remarkable how brilliantly real it is, even to much younger generations. Once again it pained me to reach the back cover. Tremendous.
