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Life and Death in the Charity Ward  By  cover art

Life and Death in the Charity Ward

By: Charles Bukowski
Narrated by: Will Patton
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Publisher's summary

A short story from The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories

"In 1955, at the age of 35, Bukowski was rushed to the charity ward of the Los Angeles County hospital, hemorrhaging at the bright red climax to a 10-year drinking bout. He was 'dying, hemorrhaging out of my mouth and ass continually...all that cheap wine and hard living coming through and out - fountains of blood.' Bukowski's experience in the cold-hearted, bureaucratic charity ward, the dumping ground for the Underground, would inexorably begin the alteration of his life's path, if indeed it can be said that he was following a well-charted path to begin with." (Pop Matters)

Upon his survival and recovery, Bukowski began a writing career that would change American poetry and prose as we know it. This is the story of the moment when his life hung by a thread, but spun something else quite unexpected.

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 (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

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The fucked-up-ness of low class existence

The character had a hemorrhoid surgery and is vomiting and shitting out blood. Even though he is in a fucked up condition like that, he doesn't take a break from being a dick to the heartless nurses.

The performance is awesome. The reader can really impersonate the various characters in the book present

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