Charles Bukowski’s “Some Picnic” is mean-spirited –what a picnic ought not to be. I rank it among the most unpleasant and psychologically cruel.
When Bukowski says he, his girlfriend Jane and his parents picnicked and “made a nice/foursome,” he means the situation was fraught with anxiety because “my parents hated her/I hated my parents.” When everyone laughs, Bukowski is silent. When they eat, it’s perfunctory—weenies, potato salad and beer (lots of it).
Looking at Jane’s distended belly, Bukowski is sure his parents will ask if Jane is pregnant. They do not ask. She’s not pregnant, and her distended belly is stomach cancer, though Bukowski doesn’t say so. What Bukowski does say about Jane is not complimentary:
“I shacked with Jane for 7 years
she was a drunk
I loved her.”
At home, Bukowski and Jane get drunk (as usual), and looking at her “beer belly,” he says,
“oh, I said, well here’s to our beautiful
child.
here’s to our beautiful child,
she said.”
Some picnic.
When Barbet Schroeder screened Barfly (1987) for Bukowski, acted by Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, Bukowski was dissatisfied. He thought Rourke didn’t get it quite right! Maybe he didn’t hold his glass right. Critics disagreed with Bukowski, and Rourke and Dunaway received Golden Globe awards for Best Actor.
Featured Image:Barbet Schroeder. Barfly (1987). Screenplay by Charles Bukowski.
See Charles Bukowski. Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Bleed. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1979. Jane Baker died in 1962 of complications of alcohol abuse and stomach cancer.