I know that I'm going to compromise any hopes of obtaining hip street credibility with this next comment but I think it is time that some one came out and said it: Bukowski is over rated. His reflections of life are no more profound then many other writers; living life on a bar stool does not impart any greater insights on life then four years in college. In my opinion everything has been said, so all that remains is the endless variety of ways to say it. Bukowski figured out one way, and ran it into the ground. His poetry is fleetingly amusing and his fiction is often grating (anyone read "Pulp" ?). So why did I give Notes 4 stars? Because it was the column format that, to my mind, allowed Bukowski to fully realize whatever vision (sorry, I use that for lack of a better word) he had. The columns are funny and, especially in the case of the Neal Cassidy one, very touching. That some structure was imposed on Bukowski, even if that structure was only the size constraints of the paper, seemed to have done him a world of good. The self-indulgence that make many of his other pieces frustrating could have been channeled in a way that forced Bukowki to be great instead of a curiosity.