When my best friend, a book publisher, would host an annual guy’s weekend for high school and college friends at his house in Millbrook, in upstate New York. I would always take the couch in the library. On the book shelves were great authors like Hemingway and Salinger, and also various books by Charles Bukowski.

“Check out this Bukowski. I think you’ll like it.”

The book was Post Office. The opening line was something like, “It started as an accident.” Bukowski’s first novel was a humorous account of the down and out author’s life working in a post office and I was immediately hooked.

I would go on to read everything I could find by Bukowski. Women, Love is a Dog from Hell, Ham on Rye, Factotum and on and on —all of Bukowski’s poetry, prose, short stories and correspondence. Whenever a new title would show up at the Astor Place Bookstore,

I would snatch it up along with books from his literary hero John Fante, like Ask the Dust.

Over the years I have become an avid Bukowski aficionado/enthusiast enjoying Mickey Rourke’s portrayal of the Los Angles underground legend in the movie “Barfly” and Bukowski’s own performance in Barbet Schroeder’s wonderful 1985 documentary film, “The Bukowski Tapes.” When Bukowski passed on in 1994 it was a major blow. We had lost arguably one of the greatest writers of our time.

So, it was with great curiosity that I discovered on Facebook recently that one of Bukowski’s longtime girlfriends, sculptress and poet Linda King, was going to be appearing in a literary-arts event in 2026. We exchanged emails and Linda mailed me a copy of her old book, “Loving and Hating Charles Bukowski: A True Story,” along with a new photo-book of her wonderful sculptures.

The great thing about Bukowski was his ability to make readers feel something very real with his humor, flow and honesty. Always entertaining, thought-provoking and resonant. Linda King’s no holds-barred recollections of her volatile 5 year on-and-off love affair with the famous street poet, 20 years her senior, is honest, revelatory, heart-warming and heartbreaking at the same time with intimate love letters and poems between the two interspersed throughout the book as it reflects the nature of the underground writers scene in Los Angeles in the ‘70’s and the depth of a couple’s enduring love for each other through constant break-ups, infidelities, drunken fights, jealousies and the desire the be together again and again. This book is one of the most entertaining and insightful looks into the real Charles Bukowski, written by a courageous young woman who was both his muse and object of affection. I loved reading this harrowing account of a relationship that traverses from heaven to hell and back chapter after chapter. It is full of beautiful poetry and real insight into Charles Bukowski by the woman who may have known him best of all. If you are a Bukowski fan, or have ever had your heart broken but someone you love with every fiber of your being —you will love this book. I know I did

Post-script:

Linda King was kind enough to text me this note after I sent her this short review:

[Wow! That is a great review of my book. It is being translated right now into French language. They might like to use it on the back of the book or part of it. I just got off a long trip…tomorrow.

But thank you for you words.-Linda King ]

Adam Kluger