Tales of Ordinary Madness

By: Charles Bukowski, Gail Chiarrello - editor

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

"He loads his head full of coal and diamonds shoot out of his finger tips. What a trick. The mole genius has left us with another digest. It's a full house - read 'em and weep." - Tom Waits

Inspired by D.H. Lawrence, Chekhov, and Hemingway, Bukowski's writing is passionate and extreme - his life was as weird and wild as the tales he wrote. His first work came from the 1960s Los Angeles underground press, and yet he became regarded as one of one of America's greatest poets and realist novelists.

This collection of Buk's grimmest diaries gives an insight into the noir and brutal Los Angeles that Bukowski observed and lived so well. He was a legend in his time: a madman, a recluse, a lover...tender, vicious...never the same. These are exceptional stories that came pounding out of his violent and depraved life - horrible and holy. You cannot listen to them and come away the same again.

Tales of Ordinary Madness includes iconic stories "A .45 to Pay the Rent" about drug dealing, fatherhood and love on the other side of the law, and "The Great Zen Wedding" in which Bukowski goes off the rails as best man at a wealthy Hollywood affair.

OBIE winner Will Patton (Remember the Titans, The Good Wife, Armageddon) recreates Bukowski in his visceral prime, along with every eye-popping character in his life, each adversary, lover, and stranger in a lost city.

©1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1983 Charles Bukowski

More about the author:

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for 50 years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was 24, and began writing poetry at the age of 35. He died in San Pedro, California on March 9, 1994 at the age of 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.

©1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1983 Charles Bukowski (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Bukowski...a professional disturber of the peace...laureate of Los Angeles netherworld writes with crazy romantic insistence that losers are less phony than winners, and with an angry compassion for the lost." ( Newsweek)

The performance is worthy of the text.

Completely alive. There is no author easier to understand and Will Payton was born to read him.

A Great Book With Not-So-Great Narration

The book itself is great but the narration is annoying. It sounds like a guy doing a bad impersonation of Dirty Harry, dramatically speaking through clenched teeth. It doesn't do justice to the material and rather takes away from what is otherwise a good book.

Masterful Performance

This is the kind of book where the author’s writing style makes the story, but could be too much for some. Regardless of your particular feelings on the story itself, the performance by Will Patton is truly amazing. Listening to this book I can truly say that reading the text without the masterful performance in this audiobook would be a lesser experience. Bravo!

Bukawski!!! What a discovery.

Fantastically, raw and real! Great story telling and ability to make you feel as you know the characters very quickly. Refreshingly in your face writing. So glad I I found this author. A real gem.

Patton nails this.

The sample audio was way out of context and made the reading sound off. But finally I bought this and found that Patton knows his Bukowski.

I never did believe the snideness that some narrators give Bukowski's writing. Recordings of Bukowski himself don't have that tone of forced irony. He means what he's saying. Patton gets it and gives us a lively but straightforward interpretation. I'm getting the whole Bukowski by Patton set.

Will Patton is fantastic

The best narration of bukowski I've heard yet. And bukowski himself, what to say. The most fluid writer of all. Don't try indeed.

I never get tired of listening to bukowski

the narrator really does a great job, I am getting the rest of the series

Buk!

The reading is fantastic. The stories are horrible, brilliant, funny, disgusting, and beautiful. I hope that The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, and Notes of a Dirty Old Man get the same treatment.

What a performance

I think Patton reads this story better than Bukowsky himself . Pattin should get more than 5 stars!
Some stories are so and so but overall much enjoyable

Just a case of ordinary madness

Will Patton is a wonderful narrator. He sounds like how I think Buk should sound. 1950s noirish in a smoked filled bar. If you like Buk's short stories this is a no brainer. Patton does not disappoint.