Russell's review
Post Office
by Charles Bukowski
Russell's review
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Russell's review
rating:
Bukowksi is a brilliant minimalist (or just a more candid Hemmingway).
Literature is full of brilliant drunks who wax on in purple prose about why they drink, why the world makes them drink, etc.
Bukowski cuts through all this sentimentalism and reveals the world of the drunk through his still inebriated eyes, not the whimsical or weepy sober memories. It's a world where "shit happens," you rely on instinct and even though you're in a fog it feels all the more real.
It's fun to cheer for Bukowski's protagonist (a thinly veiled Bukowski) as he pushes through the story, numb to values, feelings, and anything beyond his next beer or piece of ass.
If you're looking for more insight and background, read the prequel, "Ham on Rye". Until then, don't judge this book by its own two-dimensional amoral protagonist. As Bukowski once scolded a critic, "Hey baby, when I write, I'm the hero of my own shit."
Literature is full of brilliant drunks who wax on in purple prose about why they drink, why the world makes them drink, etc.
Bukowski cuts through all this sentimentalism and reveals the world of the drunk through his still inebriated eyes, not the whimsical or weepy sober memories. It's a world where "shit happens," you rely on instinct and even though you're in a fog it feels all the more real.
It's fun to cheer for Bukowski's protagonist (a thinly veiled Bukowski) as he pushes through the story, numb to values, feelings, and anything beyond his next beer or piece of ass.
If you're looking for more insight and background, read the prequel, "Ham on Rye". Until then, don't judge this book by its own two-dimensional amoral protagonist. As Bukowski once scolded a critic, "Hey baby, when I write, I'm the hero of my own shit."
