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Post Office

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 28,524 ratings · 1,248 reviews

"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published May 31st 2002 by Ecco (first published 1971)

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Dec 06, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gr-group-coreads, read-in-2012, giggles, gr-friends-recommend, cross-continental-book-club

Okay, I can already hear the “booooos” from the Mitchellites saying “how can you give Cloud Atlas two stars, but you give THIS four stars?” I will tell you how. It’s simple really. I thought Cloud Atlas was “okay,” whereas I “really liked” this one. That’s all there is to it. So here we go...

This book made me want to drink. A lot. I mean a lot, a lot. And it made me laugh. A lot. Now you know; my secret is out – I am a twisted, depraved human being who enjoys reading the thoughts of a dirty old...more

74 likes · like · see review

Dec 10, 2012 Arthur Graham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: to-read-again

Why is reading Bukowski so much more enjoyable when you're drinking?

Easy: because everything's more enjoyable when you're drinking.

Well, maybe that's not always true. Not when you're under arrest. Certainly not when you go before the judge. Also, it doesn't typically fly in most rehab groups, but now I'm officially off track! For however much the man's life and writing was informed by the bottle, it was informed by a lot of other things as well, and working for the U.S. Postal Service from the e...more

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Nov 30, 2007 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars

is it just me, or does reading bukowski make you want to listen to tom waits, too? finished post office last night and this morning listened to small change on the train. here are the opening lyrics to I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue):
I don't mind working, 'cause I used to be jerking off most of my time in bars,
I've been a cabbie and a stock clerk and a soda-fountain jock-jerk
And a manic mechanic on cars.
It's nice work if you can get it, now who the hell sa...more

53 likes · like · see review

Oct 11, 2007 Brent Legault rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: knuckle-heads, ne'er-do-wells

Bukowski was once an idol of mine. I've since grown up. He took himself too seriously (while pretending that he didn't). And he was practically talentless. He had spunk and a surprising ("surprising" because of all the booze) work ethic but an ultimately boring sense of humor. His words are like what Hemingway would have thrown away. Bukowski was America's greatest one-trick pony. Or perhaps that's giving him too much credit. He might have had only half a trick, like that uncle of ours who used...more

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Jun 02, 2007 Christopher Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone (except girls)

What do you get when you mix two cases of beer, chronic gambling, and a vulgar, "Fuck this world and fuck you if you live in it" attitude?

Probably not a very nice person. But after reading "Post Office", my first by Bukowski, you start to realize that there are too many fucking pussy ass nice people in the world. I wish sometimes that I could live ten minutes of my life the way Henry Chininski wakes up every morning. Maybe then my balls might drop just an inch or two and I could get the fucking...more

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Jan 29, 2013 [P] rated it 3 of 5 stars

A few years ago I was watching a football game in a pub. My team, Liverpool, were playing AC Milan and there happened to be two Italians sitting directly in front of me and my friends. The atmosphere was noticeably chilly from kick-off, and didn’t improve despite AC's comfortable victory; indeed, throughout the 90 minutes the Italians were seemingly less interested in the game and more concerned with turning around and dead-eying me and my friends.

At full-time one of my friends went to the toil...more A few years ago I was watching a football game in a pub. My team, Liverpool, were playing AC Milan and there happened to be two Italians sitting directly in front of me and my friends. The atmosphere was noticeably chilly from kick-off, and didn’t improve despite AC's comfortable victory; indeed, throughout the 90 minutes the Italians were seemingly less interested in the game and more concerned with turning around and dead-eying me and my friends.

At full-time one of my friends went to the toilet and was gone for quite some time. We wondered, the two of us that were left, whether he was being sick, but did not contemplate the possibility of anything more sinister. Eventually our friend walked back over to the table, hair dripping, and somewhat confused. He explained that the Italians had followed him into the toilet [don’t get ahead of yourselves and the story, it’s not going there] and forced his head into the bowl. A terrible, humiliating, act that infuriated me; I was only a kiddie, and had an awful temper when it came to any form of [what I perceived to be] injustice. In any case, I decided that I wasn’t going to take this shit without exacting some retribution, so I stormed into the toilet, flinging open the door; and, without really taking much notice of what confronted me, I uttered the now famous [among my friends, that is] words:

"Which of you despicable fucks wants to fight me first?!"

It was, perhaps, a millisecond after blurting this out that I became fully aware of just how huge the two men were. Of course, the sobering sight of gargantuan Italians dispelled any heroic bravado and so I quickly fled the scene [in an effort to save my neck I actually grassed them up to the staff..."Er, excuse me Barman, these people are threatening me!"]. As this story illustrates most people [most men especially] understand the allure of the heroic gesture, of displaying chutzpah, of fighting for the little man. We all, to some extent, want to be John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart. Likewise, we all enjoy a crazy anecdote.

So, yeah, I get it, I understand the appeal of Charles Bukowski and his work. If someone were to share his stories with me in a pub [‘you’ll never guess what happened to me…’] I would be genuinely entertained. But that’s it, that is the point, we’re not in a pub and Bukowski isn’t my pal. He was/is an acclaimed writer, a professional, and so my expectations are greater, my demands more intense. His work is meant to be literature [this word, to my mind, entails more than shoveling shit onto the page], and as that it [for me] falls horribly short. In fact, there is little that is more likely to dampen my literary ardour, to kill my reading erection than Bukowski’s novels.

Having said that, this, his first novel, is pretty good. Sure, right from the off, Chuck was an egotistical, self-aggrandizing, bore, but the stories here are fresher and warmer and less depressing. Post Office doesn’t feel as flat and lifeless as his other work, and there isn’t the overarching misogyny that usually mars his books like a skid-mark. Chinaski, too, is closer to being the character [that one imagines] Bukowski thought he was i.e. a spirited rogue with a little bit of swagger. This Chinaski is much more palatable than Factotum's and Women's; That Chinaski is an odious boozehound who I would happily push under a bus.

I say stories, by the way, because Bukowski wasn’t a novelist; even his better books were essentially a series of anecdotes strung together like old knickers on a washing line.

I'm giving this 3 stars, not because it deserves it when set side-by-side with other novels I have given that rating, but because it isn't awful and that, for Bukowski, is quite some achievement. (less)

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Aug 20, 2008 Rosie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anybody

My first affair with Bukowski. I found this book while substitute teaching a group of tranquil 12th graders. I picked up the book, began reading, and couldn't believe that this book was allowed in a classroom.
Luckily the students had no interest whatsoever in the book, so I had it all to my evil self.
The book is hilarious. I read it in an afternoon. I became that crazy person in a coffee shop cackling over her book. The sentences are short and sharp. The protagonist has no regard for anything...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Alana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Famous only for his name and his necessary inclusion in the canon of alt-trendy writers, Bukowski's work is as empty and meaningless as his name.

Ignoring notoriety and hype, this book is just a mediocre rambling of a bastard, stupid women and drunk men. It proports to say nothing outside of its plot aside from cliches, like "the world doesn't care about you", "working is hard to do", and all that nonsense.

All in all, mediocre. And I think that's the worst thing that one can say about a book.

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2008 Raegan Butcher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bukowski had worked at the post Office for 11 yrs by the time he quit at the age of 50 to become a full-time writer.Legend has it that right after he left the post office he wrote this book in three weeks. Its a bit rough in spots but that was the charm of the man's writing--it churned straight from his gut thru his fingers onto the page. This isn't his best book--but for a first novel its quite a keeper, filled with zest and Bukowski's particular brand of self-mocking humor.

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 24, 2007 Nicole rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: The Underdogs

My first reading of a Bukowski book. I loved it because I identified with the drunk loser protagonist who lives day-to-day in a job he hates yet doesn't have many options to do anything else.

I like the style in which Bukowski writes. It's very descriptive, yet straight to the point on how a character is feeling and the current situations they're in without the sugar coating. The main character is cynical yet emotional and endearing.

6 likes · like · see review

Oct 25, 2007 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: ungrandmas

My grandma hated the postman in my hometown because he kicked my 13 year old mutt dog when he thought no one was around. In fact, after this postman died in an awful motorcycle crash, and everyone in town was walking around going, "Holy shit, did you hear about that crash?" my gradma would just stare them down and say, "You know, he was not a nice guy -he kicked my grandson's dog for no reason."

9 likes · like · see review

Nov 07, 2012 Ema rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: true-story, american, read-in-english

Post Office was Bukowski's first novel, written at the age of 49. However, this was not his first work - throughout the years, he had published poetry and short stories. Yet, only at 49 he decided to dedicate himself to writing and finally quit working at the postal service, with the support of his future publisher. I wonder whether the outcome would have been different for Bukowski, had not been for this turn of events...

The novel (which is mainly autobiographical) recounts the main events from...more

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Nov 08, 2010 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, contemporary

I’ll begin by saying that I did enjoy my time spent reading Post Office. It’s undeniably humorous in its, dry, snide, arrogant way. But once you look beyond the humor, there isn’t much to see. Yes, there are some off handed remarks that I’m certain ring true for many people, myself included. But for a man who notoriously saved “the best of himself for paper” this book is surprisingly soul-less. Or perhaps his soul was just black.

Henry Chinaski is a man filled with want and laziness. He is foreve...more I’ll begin by saying that I did enjoy my time spent reading Post Office. It’s undeniably humorous in its, dry, snide, arrogant way. But once you look beyond the humor, there isn’t much to see. Yes, there are some off handed remarks that I’m certain ring true for many people, myself included. But for a man who notoriously saved “the best of himself for paper” this book is surprisingly soul-less. Or perhaps his soul was just black.

Henry Chinaski is a man filled with want and laziness. He is forever seeking something more than his lot, but lacks initiative; therefore his search is and ever will be, fruitless. Henry obviously possesses an awareness of himself and others and yet for all of his insight, he doesn’t appear to understand much of the world or the people in it, although he would claim otherwise. Henry respects no one, not even himself and I get the impression that he doesn’t place much stock in the human race as a whole. He squanders through his existence by drinking, gambling and screwing and somehow deludes himself into thinking that he is above it all because he doesn’t con himself into believing that there is more to existence than meaningless misery. I say don’t be so passé with your self reverential cleverness. Here we have a man that shouts about women only being good for a piece of ass, people being duped for valuing hard work, as they must surely be unoriginal to subscribe to such a virtue, and believes himself to be the intellectual superior of others because he lives a life filled with absence. I can’t help but feel that while he surrounds himself with the philosophy that most people suck hard, he secretly hopes that someone will make a believer out of him. What’s truly ironic is there isn’t much that separates Henry from those that he snubs, just drive and enthusiasm.

Many have said that you will either love Burkowski, or you’ll hate him. For me, it’s neither. I respect him for his self divulged honesty as seen here:
“I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone.".

And I admire him for his ability to eloquently pen unexplored thoughts such as these:
"I felt like crying but nothing came out. it was just a sort of sad sickness, sick sad, when you can't feel any worse. I think you know it. I think everybody knows it now and then. but I think I have known it pretty often, too often."

I won’t deny that Burkowski was an undeniably gifted writer, whose musing I can relate too, as we all can. But ultimately, I feel sympathy for anyone who wasn’t inspired to live outside of their own head.
(less)

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Jul 19, 2009 Madeleine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: head-in-the-clouds-nose-in-a-book, peer-pressure, mmix, hank-chinaski, my-kingdom-for-a-desert-island, our-libeary

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After tearing through "The Last Night of the Earth Poems," I wanted to see if Bukowski the Novelist could hold a candle to Bukowski the Poet.

And if "Post Office" is indicative of what Bukowski's idea of prose was, then that answer is a very satisfying, very resounding affirmative.

Bukowski's the disgruntled writer's writer. His understated humor, natural vulgarity and determined self-abuse don't require a fumbling attempt at understanding on the reader's part, which makes relating to the Hank C...more After tearing through "The Last Night of the Earth Poems," I wanted to see if Bukowski the Novelist could hold a candle to Bukowski the Poet.

And if "Post Office" is indicative of what Bukowski's idea of prose was, then that answer is a very satisfying, very resounding affirmative.

Bukowski's the disgruntled writer's writer. His understated humor, natural vulgarity and determined self-abuse don't require a fumbling attempt at understanding on the reader's part, which makes relating to the Hank Chinaski depicted in "Post Office" an effortless exercise in empathy.

Yeah he's a womanizer (or he's looking for happiness in the wrong places). Yeah he's a drunk (or he's just trying to numb the pain that comes with an 11-year sentence in the postal field). Yeah he's an inveterate gambler (or he finds some relief and solace in knowing how to play the game). But there's something so jarringly admirable in the way he rolls with the punches, knows how to suss out the bullshit, and doesn't let anything or anyone break his bitter, determined spirit.

The focus of the novel shines on Bukowski's/Chinaski's hellacious experience with life as the post office's whipping boy; the climax -- his decision to resign with the intention of pursuing a career with 50 nipping at his heels -- is relegated to a simple few pages; the last few pages of the book document his extended period of black-out drunkeness and barely-remembered post-post office partying. It's the exact release the poor man needs to wash off the filth that comes with more than a decade of glorified servitude. As the novel ends and he finally crashes back to awareness, he knows exactly what he has to do: Write a book.

The passivity of his departure from the U.S. Postal Service is a thunderclap of contrast from the mail delivery man who swears like it's his second language, gets attacked by irate women on his delivery route, dismisses his boss's repeated attempts at turning him into another drone by managerial dominance, and misses his dog more than he misses the ex-lover who claimed the animal. Bukowski's not a heartless man -- his genuine sympathy for a coworker he watches spiral toward a sobbing breakdown is touching, and watching the man become a father suggests that he is quite capable of humanity and warmth -- but he knows that he should be doing something better than whittling away his years as the postal office's very own pack mule. Only the patience of a saint would stave off the inevitable frustration and anger, and Bukowski makes it quite clear that he knows his place is among the sinners.

His ability to make the most mundane moments soar and sing like crucial turning points is fascinating and a brilliant reinterpretation of Romanticism for the '70s. I never thought I'd want to read about how postal workers are trained and the sheer mindlessness of their duties as they climb a shaky ladder toward supposed success, but Bukowski finds a way to describe everything with an irritated detachment and dry humor that's downright irresistible.

It's raw. It's honest. It's shameless. And it shows that if you want something bad enough, you will willingly subject yourself to various degrees of hell to get there. Even at 50.(less)

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Nov 28, 2011 Michael Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I started my Bukowski adventure a couple of years ago, and things went downhill from Ham on Rye to this book, going through Factotum. In all you get glimpses into the life of Henri Chinaski, the drunk-who-knew-too-much, the literate gutter-dweller, the genius needing bottle. It's Henry Miller with Milan Kundera with Jerome David Sallinger with Jack Kerouac with ... it's the loose storyline, the womanizing, the boozing, the job-hopping, the drifting. In some you also get the author's immense tale...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Joel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Post Office is raw in both the good and bad senses of the word. As a novel, it's messy and episodic, barely hanging together. Worse, in spite of his candor, Bukowski's perspective is limited by the bullshit self-absorption of the long-term alcoholic. But, much more importantly, this novel is alive in a way you can't fake. It's studded with keen and frequently hilarious observations, written in no-nonsense prose that's both crude and vivid. Post Office is a pleasure to read.

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Jan 20, 2008 Kelsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a great novel. The first Bukowski book I read, this will truly draw you in to his work and to the recurring character Hank Chinaski-a drunk with a temper who treats women terribly. But the book is hilarious and the "I hate my job" aspect as seen through Chinaski's work at the post office is really one of the best office-y books I have ever read (maybe a tie with the fantastic office scenes with Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road).

Here's the books dedication: "This book is presented as a wo...more

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Feb 15, 2010 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just love Bukowski's writing style, he is easy to read. I can't read literature. I can't read Dostoyevsky. I forced myself to finish Crime and Punishment just so I could say that I'd read Crime and Punishment.

Bukowski wrote this book before "going postal" became a common saying. We can all swap shitty job stories and have a laugh about it, but despite his humor, he was really talking about some serious stuff. It takes books like these to really make you think about how dehumanizing a lot of jo...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Upon reviewing my initial thoughts about this book, I felt I hadn't given it a fair chance, so I decided to revisit the book and write a proper review for it.

A brief glimpse into the eleven years Bukowski spent working for the postal service is well told with some very funny moments, but also some surprisingly serious scenes. All in all though, it's hard to ignore that the main character isn't very likable and normally I wouldn't really care, but this novel is semi-autobiographical and that make...more

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Sep 17, 2007 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the first Bukowski novel I read, and I was instantly hooked. While I'd have to say that Factotum is his best novel page for page, this one takes a close second. It's like Office Space for the drunken, grizzled, lazy blue collar set, with the comedy coming in the form of Hank Chinaski's bitter, hung-over, venemous rants against a system that seems designed to wear men down until they're just cogs turning wheels. One feels a bit gritty after a Bukowski novel, but also strangely empowered,...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Cwn_annwn_13 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-public-library

Out of what I've read by Bukowski at this point in time (I've only read four of his books as of today) I would rank this and Ham on Rye as his best.

Most of Post Office revolves around his two stints as a Postal Worker, boozing, gambling, relationships with women and his trying to keep on with his writing while juggling all the other facets of his life. Its actually no wonder he was so miserable working at the post office considering he would drink and peck away at the typewriter every night til...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Semina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

It's interesting how Mr. Bukowski tells the story with minimal emotions from the Chinaski's point of view. The paradox here lays in that he presents us the system, where a single person virtually doesn't exist and is a part of the statistics and there is no understanding for that person. That's the way I understood this novel.
I really don't have anything else to say about this novel. Curse my New Year's resolution!!!

*sigh*

Last week I decided to stop reading trash novels and start reading mor...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Venus added it

Shelves: novel

It began as a mistake.

It was Christmas season and I learned from the drunk up on the hill, who did the trick every Christmas, that they would hire damned near anybody, and so I went and the next thing I knew I had this leather sack on my back and was hiking around at my leisure. What a job, I thought. Soft! They only gave you a block or two and if you managed to finish, the regula carrier would give you another block to carry, or maybe you'd go back in and the soup would give you another, but yo...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 2 of 5 stars

Starts with a print of the Postmans Code of Ethics, which you somehow know that our hero, Chinaski, is going to break nearly everyone.

I didn't know what to expect from this. I have rarely enjoyed any of the beat generation of writing as they are too much up their own arse.

There was no such worries with this excellent tale, which is subversive, funny and instantly accessible.

Chinaski is a pissed up womaniser who lives for the next drink and/or shag. He has a very laissez fair attitude to everythi...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Post Office is the autobiographical account of Charles Bukowski's 12-year affair with the United States Postal Service.

"It started as a mistake." - Henry Chinaski

The story chronicles his hardships working in a menial, repetitive job; the oddball colleagues he's had to put up with; the sly, seductive women he's ended up bedding. It's raw, honest, gives-it-to-you-straight story telling. It candidly tells of disappointments, unmet expectations and dreams forsaken. One can easily relate to many, if...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Miguel Jiménez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Es la primera vez que leo a Bukowski y me ha encantado. Ya hasta lo catalogo como un maestrazo de la literatura. Maneja tan bien las situaciones, como hay momentos un poco eróticos como los hay de desgracia. Algunas de las aventuras que le pasan en el día a día a Chinaski(el protagonista) son entrañables. Igual el manejo de personajes. Una muy buena descripción que produjo que me imaginara a los personajes tal cual. Lo mismo con el ambiente, su rutinario trabajo yo lo veía, las casas por las que...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Kirstine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bukowski puzzles me.

This could be a true story, he could honest to god have sat down one day, with a hangover from hell, and decided to write this book, for no other reason than to tell the world "I exist. Lives like this are lived every day".

Something struck me, not in the book (well, to be honest, the entire book struck me), but there was something on the back of it. One of the reviews read: "Cunning, relentlessly jokey and sad". That broke me. It isn't relentlessly funny, no, it's relentles...more

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May 05, 2012 João Morais rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dizem que um dos principais objectivos da arte é o de fazer um retrato fiel da vida, tentando imitá-la da forma mais perfeita possível. Confesso que não partilho desta concepção de arte (até porque o surrealismo e o dadaísmo desde muito cedo me conquistaram), mas a ser verdadeira, então esta tem na prosa de Bukowski um dos mais sublimes exemplos.

Fazendo uma descrição sempre tangível da vida de um alter-ego, Bukowski cria em "Correios" (à semelhança do que fez em "Mulheres", outra obra incrível)...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Kyle Shroufe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-beat-lost, anarchist-marxist-etc, modernism-post-modernism

Let me start by saying Charle Bukowski is one of my favorite authors of the mid to late 20th century. His alter ego Henry Chininski is also my hero in many ways, yet he is also a piece of shit at times. It's the short sentances and gruff yet descriptive writing style Bukowski has that makes his books so easy to read and so accessable to almost anyone. Yet if you want to look deeper into his novels you can find metaphors and meaning. Although I will admit Bukowski's work is pretty straightforward...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Tim Niland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

A co-worker and I always talk about Bukowski and Tom Waits (they just seem to go together, don't they?) I'd read a bit of Bukowski's poetry in college and liked it but was always put off by his unrepentant view of drinking and alcoholism. I was looking for something off the beaten path to read so I picked up this book along with some Jim Thompson (how about that combo!) while growing a bookstore in Princeton. An independent bookstore - the horror! But they have an in with the University, so mayb...more A co-worker and I always talk about Bukowski and Tom Waits (they just seem to go together, don't they?) I'd read a bit of Bukowski's poetry in college and liked it but was always put off by his unrepentant view of drinking and alcoholism. I was looking for something off the beaten path to read so I picked up this book along with some Jim Thompson (how about that combo!) while growing a bookstore in Princeton. An independent bookstore - the horror! But they have an in with the University, so maybe they're not so independent after all. This book begins with Bukowski (who really did work for the postal service) hungover and trying to drag himself into a job. He's a mail carrier. (John Prine was a mail carrier. So was Charles Mingus. I really liked the mailman who used to have my route. He died last year. When I was growing up, our mailman was a survivor of Pearl Harbor. The newspaper would interview him every year on the anniversary of the attack.) Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, stumbles (literally) into a part time substitute position that sends him all over the city with wild and often hysterical adventures involving wild dogs, seductive women, and a catastrophic flood that swamps his mail truck. All the while he is boozing full time and living it up with a floozy. The second half of the book shifts after the floozy walks out on him, and he lands a full time job sorting mail. Anyone who has ever held a municipal or government job will immediately recognize the kinds of crazed co-workers and sadistic bosses he describes. His alter character, Chinaski, gets wildly unstable, nearly burning the post office down (one of the funniest parts of the book) and having a string of luck at the racetrack that sees him eating at four-star restaurants. His luck fails after his latest girlfriend gives birth to his child and then abruptly leaves him. He falls into an alcoholic tailspin that seems to have no chance of reversal. Despite the dodgy subject matter, much of the book was actually quite funny, and was written with genuine imagination and wit. I was only a lengthy section of faux (or perhaps real) disciplinary letters from the postal service that things started to skid. Bukowski once wrote a story or anecdote where the protagonist rips a huge concrete phallus off of a statue and jams it through somebody's mailbox as revenge. It's hysterical. It's also not here. Try to find it though, it's a prime example of Bukowski's dark, mordant wit.(less)

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About Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany on August 16, 1920, the only child of an American soldier and a German mother. At the age of three, he came with his family to the United States and grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1939 to 1941, then left school and moved to New York City to become a writer. His lack of publishing success at this time caused him to g...more

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Trivia About Post Office

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Quotes from Post Office

“I wanted the whole world or nothing.” — 1,109 people liked it

“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.” — 267 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51504.Post_Office?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347432080l/51504.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51504.Post_Office?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Post Office by Charles Bukowski[/url]

Post Office

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