Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) remains one of the most raw, controversial, and imitated voices in 20th-century American literature. He was a cult figure who became a mainstream success, a poet who wrote like a drunk on a bender, and a novelist who turned the ugly, mundane corners of Los Angeles into epic poetry.
The novel is a viciously funny and soul-crushing account of Chinaski’s decade-long career as a mail carrier and clerk. It contains every Bukowski trademark: the hatred of authority, the search for cheap wine, the desperate affairs, and the gallows humor of a man who realizes the American Dream is a lie. “The post office is a brutal institution,” he writes. It remains the perfect starting point. The Wander Years. Chronologically, Factotum precedes Post Office . It follows Chinaski as a young man drifting across 1940s America, taking menial jobs (a factotum is a handyman of all work) only long enough to earn money for a bottle and a room. He works in a bicycle factory, a dog biscuit plant, and a slaughterhouse—fired from almost all of them. charles bukowski books
To approach Bukowski’s bibliography is not to seek refined prose or uplifting themes. It is to confront the bleary-eyed, bloody-knuckled reality of the alcoholic, the down-and-out, and the postman. His work is semi-autobiographical, chronicling the alter-ego through decades of low-rent hotels, dead-end jobs, and horse races. Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) remains one of the most
This is the most existential of his novels. It is not about rising up, but about staying afloat It contains every Bukowski trademark: the hatred of