A little bit of Bukowski goes a long way. The first few stories and poems (which I read as prose; I'm not terribly fond of poetry) were engrossing, but as the same themes cropped up repeatedly in each piece, I'll admit that my interest flagged.

Aside from the repetitive themes, I was quite happy with the editing of this anthology. The story choices were quite good: I was able to sample Bukowski's work across the decades, but each story flowed into the next without the choppiness one might expect from such a broad range of work.

While I am happy to have read the book, I am in no hurry to seek out more of Mr. Bukowski's writing. Tales of writing, boozing, and womanizing get pretty tired pretty quickly.