post office: A Novel by Charles Bukowski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of post office: A Novel
Book Review: Ardin's View
Summary: 5 Stars
Bukowski's style is amazing. Apparently he is one of the most imitated of all US poets. In Post Office you get a great dose of what Bukowski's writing is like. As for his philosophy, I'm not so sure. Everyone must have one, but Bukowski hides his well. This book is also semi-autobiographical and gives a great view of what was like for Bukowski to be an undiscovered and un-appreciated writer in the 60's. To find out what this is like today, you an visit the How to be a Writer blog, http://soulvariations.blogspot.com/, which follows the journey that Bukowski would have been all too familiar with. This book is an American classic and if you have never read Bukowski then read this. By Ardin Lalui, author of Ramona: www.soulvariations.comBook Review: Awsum!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the most enjoyable book I have read in a LONG time. I am a US Postal worker and the stories that Charles Bukowski writes about are right on the money!!
He has definitely worked in the trenches of the postal service as I have. Most of the country think we are overpaid government workers, do very little, just go on break whenever, have it sooo easy, etc. This is a glimpse of the lunacy that actually happens on a daily, weekly,and yearly basis.
This should be a must read before you take the oath to be a postal worker. All postal workers will enjoy this. Definitely worth the money
Book Review: Better him than me
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not even halfway through this book, and I haven't stopped laughing. As someone who works with the public, I can identify somewhat with Henry's dealings with the people on his route. Needless to say, also, we've all worked with and for jerks. This book almost reminds me of a literary version of Curb Your Enthusiasm...the worst parts.Book Review: Beware the 'wisdom of the slave'
Summary: 4 Stars
Toward the end of Post Office, Bukowski's next best novel after Ham on Rye, the protagonist Henry Chinaski has a revelation. Most of us scramble for job security, even if it comes at the price of our physical and emotional health, our creativity, and our identity. Anything's worth the cost of keeping a paycheck coming in on time. So we "accept" what we're given. This, Chinaski realizes, is "the wisdom of the slave" (p. 189), and he wants nothing to do with it. So he walks away from his civil service job with the postal department. Twelve years is enough.
The tussle between individual autonomy and economic security is one of the more obvious themes in both Post Office and Bukowski's other "working man" novel, Factotum. We become dependent on our jobs, psychologically as well as materially, and the dependency is hard to break. Post Office is the story of a guy who starts out free and loose (Part I), but who finds himself drifting toward spirit-deadening "respectability" and job security (Parts II-IV), only to finally break away and face the great unknown of unemployment--and artistic creativity (Parts V & VI). Along the way, Bukowski writes a few genuinely brilliant sketches of bureaucratic stupidity, and (uncharacteristically) a few moving ones in which Chinaski plays with the child, Marina, he's sired off of Fay. There are also some moments of quite good psychological insight, as when Chinaski, disoriented by the sudden loss of routine (even though it's a routine he despised) falls to pieces right after walking away from his job.
Thankfully, there's less of the relentless-to-the-point-of-tedium drinking in Post Office than one finds in most of Bukowski's other novels (although there's still a lot). Moreover, the novel is less impressionistic and better constructed than any other Bukowski tale except Ham on Rye. Even though it's difficult to understand the cult status granted Bukowski by his admirers, Post Office is a good novel--not great, mind you, but pretty darn good.
Book Review: Brilliant. Buy this book and borrow it to you friends.
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. It's genius in it's simplicity. Buy it, read it, and pass it along.