post office: A Novel Summary and Reviews

post office: A Novel
by Charles Bukowski

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Book Summary Information

Author: Charles Bukowski
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-02-27
ISBN: 0061177571
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Ecco

Book Reviews of post office: A Novel

Book Review: "Post Office: Delivering your Psyche"
Summary: 4 Stars

"It all began as a mistake", starts off Charles Bukowski's 1971 novel "Post Office", detailing his view of the last 12 years of his life. Bukowski's nihilist classic is an autobiographical account of his 12 years of on and off work for the United States Postal Service. Told from the eyes of Henry Chinaski, a heavy drinking and womanizing gambler, whose matter of fact and straightforward personality could surely turn anyone as negative as himself. This book tells the story of a working middle class man who finds disillusionment in his expected way of living and how he copes with his problems in vain acts. It tells of the grim reality that he faced on a day to day basis and how he coped. "Post Office" was the very first novel Bukowski ever wrote and is a great display of his early style.

Holding a hankering for booze, women and horse racing, life for Henry Chinaski consisted of little more than these things and finding the will to even wake up in the morning. Posing as the perfect anti-hero he goes about much of his like in a classic slacker fashion. He lives on money he can scrap together from horse betting until he gets a low paying job as a substitute mail carrier. What started as a temporary way to make ends meet turns into a mistake of 12 years. After many months of work Henry quit at the post office and tried to earn money from horse racing alone, but his luck falls short and he is forced back into work as postal worker. Throughout many more little tragedies in the book, you come to the realization that life is never very good for Henry. You start to understand his behaviors and reasoning's and you even are allowed to see you yourself feeling the same way if only you were in his position. After growing old along side his long hated job, Henry manages to find his long awaited escape and find the life he was looking for.

While "Post Office" does reach the end that Henry could only hope for, the road of protest that is given through his eyes to get to that point is an extremely vital role of the story. The objections shown in this book neglect social agenda and focus more on the numbing and pain of the average life. Henry generally displays a matter-of-fact attitude with strong nihilist views of how life should be led, this normally means drunk, angry and alone. Seething in his own situation of being completely out of control and just letting everything come as it may, Henry manages to find self aware and numbed bliss in spite of all of his failures and tragedies along the way. I feel like everyone could draw at least some inspiration from the sad story that is entailed in this book and the harsh reality that is learned to be accepted. A reality that can be sensed in our own society.

The realization detailed in "Post Office" is that of a harsh reality to willingly call your own. We can all relate. To Henry bliss is in the bottom of every bottle and the charred remains of every cigarette that burns between his fingers. What is your bliss? We are still searching to find just that. "Post Office" brings the idea that we all subconsciously know our reality's truth is not what we actually see. Somewhere along humanities path we let ourselves settle for being unsatisfied. At this point we lost the capability to control our own reality and haven't regained control since. When anything is compromised and there is always something lost, and ours was tragic. How can one sanely cope with being out of touch from the truth like this? They can't. They turn to their own ways of settling their loss and eventually dulling their pain, but never fixing it. "Post Office" underlies that this is the way things are. It suggests that this is the truth we somehow looked over. Could we have had a better reality?

The questions that are posed to the psyche about ourselves in this book are stark. I would recommend this book to an older audience due to the fact of the dark nature of this book and some of the sexual content. The picture that's painted in this book is one that could be better accepted by an older audience with more life experience. An older audience would also appreciate the genuine creativity and display that "Post Office" illustrates. This book deserves 4 out of 5 stars and the category of "classic." "Post Office" reveals a primal and raw reality of a mid century working class man. This primal and raw reality may be that of your own.

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