[afterthefact]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

I don't think you should run for classics.

I have no idea who Kirn and Starr are, but you mentioned Bukowski and Miller. I can only guess for Bukowski, but I've read some Miller stuff and what you seem to look for is personal voices, variety in rhythm and flow.

The test would be to read books out loud. When sentences are side by side and don't connect at all, when you can't grasp the writer's rhythm or bump every here and there, it's over.

The thing would be to whisper for yourself a whole page of a novel in a noisy bookstore to make your mind up.

If you're sick of trying and finding nothing, I'd recommend Leonid Andreiev's short stories (if luck has it that they've been translated and made available) - Miller thought he was good (and it was hard for him to pay another writer a compliment).
His stories are dark, short, sharp. The Lie, The Silence, The Red Laugh are the ones I enjoyed the most.

After that, mister fact, it's up to you; I dig Joyce but he's said to be hard to read, Woolf, same and she's for sissies, Malcolm Lowry but noone ever finished the book I gave them, Louis-Ferdinand Céline but most people drop the book as it's exhausting (even when you read it out loud, it's extremely challenging and breath taking, it's a beauty), and Toby Litt's Deadkidsongs but the ones I lent it to thought it was too frightening to finish it...

Thanks, that should help too. I've never even touched Joyce, cause I always thought that would be very cliche, but that's probably stupid and I should just read it already.