Post Office

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Modest Mouse included a song titled "Bukowski" on their 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News. a b " Introduction to Charles Bukowski by Jay Dougherty". Jaydougherty.com. August 16, 1920 . Retrieved July 17, 2014. Henry Chinaski is pretty much an alcoholic, and he’s just got a job working for the postal service. He’s very honest, and very straightforward in his outlook, which is both funny and downbeat at the same time.

I don’t want to get into all the personal stuff but you went there, okay let’s read it that’s how the book feels. He gives a little too much information at times which we would normally keep to ourselves like his personal relationships with women and how they went down. I wasn't sure how much I liked it when I finished it last night. But then I woke up this morning and I felt a strange desire to read it again. It just hit me out of nowhere, it was like realising you're hungry, instead I just wanted more of this, this book, of Henry Chinaski. Perhaps it was simply the pull of a life I'll never know, of struggles I'll never endure.Post Office is the first novel written by the German-American author Charles Bukowski, published in 1971. The book is an autobiographical memoir of Bukowski's years working at the United States Postal Service. The film rights to the novel were sold in the early 1970s, but a film has not been made thus far. This book is quite dark and it feels like your served Charles Bukowski’s time at the post office through Henry Chinaski. As you can tell from his photo, the author lived the life he wrote about and still survived to age 73 (1920-1994). He was born in Germany but his parents moved to Los Angeles when he was three. Bukowski was a prolific writer. He wrote six novels (three were made into movies) as well as dozens of plays, screen scripts and collections of poetry. Because of the author’s willingness to use coarse language we get some original one-liners like “Moto was grinning from eyebrow to asshole.” And “I got drunker and stayed drunker than a shit skunk in Purgatory.” He also has an original opening sentence “It began as a mistake.”

Despite the light touch, Chinaski isn't immune from hurt, grief and introspection: "We slept without touching. We had both been robbed" and "How the hell do I know who you are or I am or anybody is?". Nevertheless, dirt and depravity notwithstanding, the overall tone is humorous. Ecco Press continues to release new collections of his poetry, culled from the thousands of works published in small literary magazines. According to Ecco Press, the 2007 release The People Look Like Flowers at Last will be his final posthumous release, as now all his once-unpublished work has been made available. [33] Writing [ edit ]

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In Post Office Charles Bukowski describes the life he had working in a post office through his alter ego Henry Chinaski. If you like to see a man throw his life away from gambling, drinking, Obsessing over women, and hating his job then this one is for you. His family moved to Mid-City, Los Angeles, [16] in 1930. [10] [15] Bukowski's father was often unemployed. In the autobiographical Ham on Rye, Bukowski says that, with his mother's acquiescence, his father was frequently abusive, both physically and mentally, beating his son for the smallest imagined offense. [17] [18] He later told an interviewer that his father beat him with a razor strop three times a week from the ages of six to 11 years. He says that it helped his writing, as he came to understand undeserved pain.

Post Office” was the result. Bukowski would follow it with five other novels (“ Factotum,”“ Women,”“ Ham On Rye,”“ Hollywood,”“ Pulp”), a screenplay (for the movie “Barfly”) and countless poems, short stories and essays. Top Five Post Office Quotes US band 311 reference Bukowski's alter ego "Hank Chinaski" in the song "Stealing Happy Hours", from the album Transistor. I wonder if this novel were written today if it would not be labeled a “memoir.” Because largely it seems to be true. And the book has a quasi-documentary feel. a b c d Young, Molly. "Poetry Foundation of America. Bukowski Profile". Poetryfoundation.org . Retrieved July 17, 2014. It wasn't just private houses where Hank delivered the mail. Businesses were also included on his run, including the local Roman Catholic Church. "I went around to the side of the church and found a stairway going down. I went in through an open door. Do you know what I saw? A row of toilets. And showers. But it was dark. All the lights were out. How in hell can they expect a man to find a mailbox in the dark? Then I saw the light switch. I threw the thing and the lights in the church went on, inside and out. I walked into the next room and there were priests' robes spread out on the table. There was a bottle of wine.

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The autobiographical book covers the years Bukowski spend working in the post office. Bukowski’s alter ego, Henry Chinaski, starts as a substitute mail carrier. The novel begins, “It began as a mistake.” He hears from a fellow drunk that the post office hires carriers during the Christmas season to handle the extra mail load and at first it seems an easy gig.

When job hunting, "The first place smelled like work, so I took the second" and much of the humour comes from work, especially satirising the bureaucracy of the post office supervisors and colleagues who are variously incompetent, sadistic and playing the system.

During one christmas season, after hearing from a drunk that the Post Office would hire "damned near anybody to deliver the mail", Hank applies and is successful at securing a delivery job as a temp. Popular Czech rappers Yzomadias and Nik Tendo mention Bukowski in their song "Bukowski" on their 2022 album Kruhy & Vlny [52] Main article: The Last Straw (2008 film) Death and legacy [ edit ] Henry Charles Bukowski Jr.'s grave in Green Hills Memorial Park a view of humanity that is cynical" https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/sep/05/bukowski A few critics and commentators [38] also supported the idea that Bukowski was a cynic, as a man and a writer. Bukowski denied being a cynic, stating: "I've always been accused of being a cynic. I think cynicism is sour grapes. I think cynicism is a weakness." [39] Poetry editorial controversy [ edit ]