The novels and poetry of Charles Bukowski continue to have devoted, admiring fans, who can never get enough of his books. We have those books in hard copy, and there is a good representation in Overdrive: The Charles Bukowski Fiction Collection and Charles Bukowski. However, there are some other writers for readers to explore: Nelson Algren, William Burroughs, Harry Crews, James Ellroy, John Fante, Jean Genet, Jim Harrison, Bohumil Hrabal, James Jones, Danilo Kiš, Cormac McCarthy, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Hunter S. Thompson, Jim Thompson, Andrew Vachss.
Cormac McCarthy uses the border of Texas and Mexico as the setting to depict the brutal history of the West. The novel is based on real events in the 1850s, where there were bounties for the scalps of massacred Native Americans.
Based on the real-life drama surrounding the execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, Mailer created a three-part novel that peeled back issues of violence and the death penalty.
A collection of essays and fiction by Harry Crews that covers a wide range of subjects from cockfighting, caring for injured animals, hard drinking and poaching gators.
Three people buy a case of dynamite to save the Grand Canyon from being wrecked by a proposed dam. A poet who loves fishing, a Vietnam veteran with addiction issues, and a woman who might love either of the men, set out from Florida to accomplish this deed.
Being on the grift outweighs any warm, fuzzy feelings between mother and son con artists, who are on opposite sides of the game.
A drug dealer, who plans to retire, gets involved in one last job that pulls him into the complex world of London’s web of organized crime.
World War II veteran Frankie the Machine tries to overcome a heroin addiction that resulted from being given morphine for a war wound. Algren’s grim portrayal of Chicago’s walking wounded won the National Book Award in 1950.
These raucous, surreal stories are set in 1950s Czechoslovakia, which was part of the Eastern Bloc, and the cult is a direct reference to Stalinist repression. Life is so absurd that even Kafka’s works might seem realistic. Hrabal is best known for Closely Watched Trains, which was made into a film.
This thoroughly researched biography reveals why the writer became a recluse at the height of a successful career, his early hard-luck life, and disastrous relationships, especially one with Simone de Beauvoir. Colin Asher’s access to the 886-page F.B.I.file on Algren clears up why Algren was being watched during the Red Scare.
The posthumously published novel of X. J. Toole, whose novel, Million Dollar Baby, was made into the eponymous Oscar-winning film. Set within the brutal and corrupt world of boxing, this novel is about a deeply troubled boxing trainer who takes on a young boxer.
Jones is best known for From Here to Eternity, and several other books about war, but this book is far more raw in its representation of men at the battlefront.