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Post Office Charles Bukowski 9780876850862 Books

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Post Office Charles Bukowski 9780876850862 Books

This toughly-written short novel tells the story of anti-hero Henry Chianski's two deadening periods of employment with the U.S. Post Office in Los Angeles. "Post Office" was the first published novel by the now famous underground novelist and poet, Charles Bukowski (1920 -1994). Chianski is the protagonist in Bukowski's other novels, and he is modeled loosely on the author. Bukowksi did, in fact have two long stints at the post office. The second, of more that twelve years, ended when John Martin, the publisher of Black Sparrow Press, offered Bukowski a monthly stipend to quit the job and devote his time to writing. Bukowski agreed and wrote "Post Office" within a month after resigning. Thus, unlike some of his later novels such as "Ham on Rye" and "Factotum" where an older Bukowski looks back on his younger life, "Post Office" has a strong feel of immediacy. The novel is funny, sharp, vulgar, and in-your-face.

The writing in "Post Office" is raw and simple. Bukowski turns his back on what many today regard as political correctness, especially in his attitudes towards women and sexuality. Also, many people, particularly those in the professions and those with substantial education, tend to define themselves in terms of their work. As far as the post office is concerned, Bukowski rejects this attitude as emphatically as a bucket of ice water in the face. He shows no sentimentality towards the post office or towards the value of his occupation. But in part this is because Bukowski had not found what he wanted to to. His vocation was as a writer.

The novel is written in six chapters, each of which is divided into short paragraphs. The opening chapter deals with Chianski/Bukoswski's initial two-year employment with the post office as a letter carrier. This section is more concentrated than the rest of the book, as Chianski describes his relationship with Betty, probably the love of his life, and a series of short affairs with other women. Chianski describes his difficulties with an overbearing supervisor, and there are funny scenes, such as that involving mailman Chianski's encounter with a German shepherd who seems enamored with him.

When Betty splits with Chianski, he becomes involved with the wealthy Joyce who divorces him after two years of marriage. Chianski has returned to the post office, this time as a clerk, where he remains for 12 years. Chianski hates his job and malingers whenever possible, spending his time at the racetrack, with women, and drinking. The book includes effective scenes of life at the track and of its hangers-on. Chianski is written-up often for misconduct but somehow never gets fired. He manages to walk away freely, on his own terms. During this time, Chianski fathers a daughter with an aging hippie named Fay. When Fay moves out, Chianski pays child support and remains surprisingly attached to his daughter. Also during this period, Betty, whom Chianski has continued to see intermittently, dies. Chianski takes Betty's death hard.

There is no John Martin in "Post Office", as there was for Bukowski, but Chianski finally works up the courage to leave a job he hates. Bukowski wrote of himself and his own decision to leave the post office: "I have one of two choices -- stay in the post office and go crazy -- or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve." At first Chianski does not know what to do with the freedom he has chosen for himself, and he goes on a drunken binge. But "Post Office" ends on an optimistic note as Chianski finds his vocation at the conclusion:

"In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.
Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought.
And then I did."

While "Post Office" is not as good as either "Ham on Rye" or "Factotum", it has much more of a sense of presence -- as Bukowski wrote the book immediately upon quitting the post office without the opportunity to reflect upon the experience through distance and the passage of time. The book in its humor,irreverance, and directness makes an excellent introduction to Bukowski.

Robin Friedman


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Post Office Charles Bukowski 9780876850862 Books Reviews

This is the first book I've read by Charles Bukowski though I have known about his books for years. This is an unsentimental, spare, stream-of-consciousness tale of, Hank Chinaski, a man who is slowly killing himself with booze, cigarettes and an empty, loveless life. There is nothing profound or redemptive about this man's life. He is living a life of quiet desperation working at a job he hates in order to pay bills, pay for his addictions and simply survive another day with a hangover. As I read the book, I wondered just how many people live like this. The book gives us a glimpse into a strata of life that many people know nothing about and can't imagine living in.

Bukowski's sparse, first person style makes the telling of this dark comedy seem easy while it obviously is not. Chinaski is Bukowski's alter-ego and as another reviewer said, it is sometimes hard to know where one begins and the other leaves off. I will read other books by this author who was a very prolific writer, but certainly not back-to-back. I need a little time to recover from the profound emotions evoked by this book before reading another "heavy" story.
A delirious, repetitive, repressed and hostile bureaucratic nightmare, Post Office is a novel that takes on Bukowski's decade-plus chained to the postal system. As a compelling artist, sloppy drunk, and sexually voracious gambler, Bukowski drifts in and out of his narrative with unsentimental anger and boozy energy, an undercurrent of resentment and anger everpresent until it is contrasted clean with the interest and indulgent love for the women in his life.

The most provocative elements of this book was certainly the portions where we see the shuffling, confusing, scary catch-22 Brazil-esque burlesque of his work in the Post Office itself. Cycling in and out, over and over, unable to even quit his job, Bukowski created a labyrinthine grand guinol of paper and sorting boxes all standing in his way of his net drink, his next lay, and his ability to even write a halfway decent line of poetry. In many ways, this reflects how I personally see my own art in the world, and it is in this manner that I really connected with his character in this book. In real life, the genesis of this book and Bukowski’s career came from being offered a hundred bucks a month to quit the post office to promise to write full time by John Martin and Black Sparrow Press…and so we all wish for this little black sparrow angel to fly into our window someday.

The most beautiful element of the book was easily the portrayal of his relationship with Betty (Jane Cooney Baker). They were perfect for each other, but in the piece the sentimentality with which he approached their relationship in both tone, diction, syntax, and other practical elements isn’t mirrored by any other writing in the book or in his approach to any other woman in any of his books. It is simply this beautiful, pure, self-destructive relationship that serves as a wholly gorgeous and holy relic that he certainly held on to for the rest of his life…and it seems that the story arc with her is one of the most beautiful things that he had ever written – the only thing that he had ever cared for snatched from him just as he realized that it was the most important thing in the world to him. What destroyed her is exactly what he tried to destroy himself with, and in her death he found the death of love, the death of a healthy sexual identity, and the death of himself.

Of course, the narrative pacing and overall diction of Bukowski's narrative voice are certainly the most compelling elements of this book. There is a certain blue-collarness to his writing that offers a remarkably simple approach to what is often a much more serious and Complicated piece – but his genius lies in this very thing. Bukowski can create a story that is appropriate for all intellectual audiences and still write something that is completely different in terms of overall beauty and meaning in the English Language. This is likely why legions of writers thought they could follow in his footsteps and write when nothing could be further from the truth (and Bukowski had no problem telling them that).

An excellent, excellent, excellent book that should be required reading for all American men.
This toughly-written short novel tells the story of anti-hero Henry Chianski's two deadening periods of employment with the U.S. Post Office in Los Angeles. "Post Office" was the first published novel by the now famous underground novelist and poet, Charles Bukowski (1920 -1994). Chianski is the protagonist in Bukowski's other novels, and he is modeled loosely on the author. Bukowksi did, in fact have two long stints at the post office. The second, of more that twelve years, ended when John Martin, the publisher of Black Sparrow Press, offered Bukowski a monthly stipend to quit the job and devote his time to writing. Bukowski agreed and wrote "Post Office" within a month after resigning. Thus, unlike some of his later novels such as "Ham on Rye" and "Factotum" where an older Bukowski looks back on his younger life, "Post Office" has a strong feel of immediacy. The novel is funny, sharp, vulgar, and in-your-face.

The writing in "Post Office" is raw and simple. Bukowski turns his back on what many today regard as political correctness, especially in his attitudes towards women and sexuality. Also, many people, particularly those in the professions and those with substantial education, tend to define themselves in terms of their work. As far as the post office is concerned, Bukowski rejects this attitude as emphatically as a bucket of ice water in the face. He shows no sentimentality towards the post office or towards the value of his occupation. But in part this is because Bukowski had not found what he wanted to to. His vocation was as a writer.

The novel is written in six chapters, each of which is divided into short paragraphs. The opening chapter deals with Chianski/Bukoswski's initial two-year employment with the post office as a letter carrier. This section is more concentrated than the rest of the book, as Chianski describes his relationship with Betty, probably the love of his life, and a series of short affairs with other women. Chianski describes his difficulties with an overbearing supervisor, and there are funny scenes, such as that involving mailman Chianski's encounter with a German shepherd who seems enamored with him.

When Betty splits with Chianski, he becomes involved with the wealthy Joyce who divorces him after two years of marriage. Chianski has returned to the post office, this time as a clerk, where he remains for 12 years. Chianski hates his job and malingers whenever possible, spending his time at the racetrack, with women, and drinking. The book includes effective scenes of life at the track and of its hangers-on. Chianski is written-up often for misconduct but somehow never gets fired. He manages to walk away freely, on his own terms. During this time, Chianski fathers a daughter with an aging hippie named Fay. When Fay moves out, Chianski pays child support and remains surprisingly attached to his daughter. Also during this period, Betty, whom Chianski has continued to see intermittently, dies. Chianski takes Betty's death hard.

There is no John Martin in "Post Office", as there was for Bukowski, but Chianski finally works up the courage to leave a job he hates. Bukowski wrote of himself and his own decision to leave the post office "I have one of two choices -- stay in the post office and go crazy -- or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve." At first Chianski does not know what to do with the freedom he has chosen for himself, and he goes on a drunken binge. But "Post Office" ends on an optimistic note as Chianski finds his vocation at the conclusion

"In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.
Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought.
And then I did."

While "Post Office" is not as good as either "Ham on Rye" or "Factotum", it has much more of a sense of presence -- as Bukowski wrote the book immediately upon quitting the post office without the opportunity to reflect upon the experience through distance and the passage of time. The book in its humor,irreverance, and directness makes an excellent introduction to Bukowski.

Robin Friedman