Pulp is Bukowski's homage to stories of thieves and cops, featuring marked gorillas who carry their hardware even to the bathroom and private detectives on the brink of alcoholism. It is a retrospective manifestation of his love for the hard-boiled reading tradition that flourished in Los Angeles during the 1920-1950 thirty-year period.
Nicky Belane is an alcoholic private detective with many problems. As if women, drinking, lack of cash, and his manic ego weren't enough, the cases he takes on are at least surreal. He is called to locate the classic French writer Céline, who is generally acknowledged to be dead, as well as the Red Sparrow, which may or may not exist.
Surreal, imaginative, witty, an ode to crime literature, Pulp is the last novel of one of the most enjoyable and influential cult writers of the 20th century.
