The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories

by Charles Bukowski

I’ve just finished reading this amazing collection of short stories by Bukowski. Many of them made me laugh; a couple of stories are so brutal, I won’t read them again. For most of them, the label “contains strong language” will be a massive understatement. The title story is a masterpiece.

From 3 Chickens so. liquor store. 5th of whiskey. 5 or 6 quarts of beer. we found an all night market. the place even had a butcher. “we wanta bake a chicken,” I said. “oh, christ,” he said. I dropped one of the quarts of beer. it really exploded. “christ,” he said. I dropped another to see what he would say. “oh, jesus,” he said. “I want THREE CHICKENS,” I said. “THREE CHICKENS?” “jesus christ, yes,” I said.