Post Office

Rating:
Summary: An Original! Don't Miss it!,
Review:
Charles Bukowski is definitely an American original. And this novel, written in only three weeks, after leaving his longest held job (of 12 years) at the Post Office, certainly provides evidence that he is one man who followed his own muse.

What's obvious here and throughout his poetry is how different and unique an artist he is. While most writers and poets desperately seek out the accolades and "respect" bestowed from Academia, here's someone who CLEARLY couldn't care less about Academic validation. His work is honest and real and RAW! Full of emotion, street language, and open disgust and the view that life isn't only lived by the "winners." Takes all kinds. And most of us, let's admit it, aren't "winners."

What makes his view easy to stomach, even enjoyable, is his great HUMOR, and simplicity of style, and bluntness. His great lesson as an artist and as a human being is this: Lose your sense of humor and YOU ARE DONE FOR! Laughter makes the loneliness and disappointment of this world tolerable (okay, a little booze helps too: at least takes off the edge). But never forget to laugh, frequently and LOUDLY. And also remember (as you are laughing) Bukowski's unspoken motto: every dog has its day!

In this work and others, Bukowski cuts through all the crap, doesn't have the time to be "polite" or "gentile": he gives it to you straight. Rude, tough-talking, often hilarious language and all: he's a great, yes FUN, storyteller. And as this work proves, he remains the great American outsider, a truth teller -- and his work, this book, Post Office, speaks more directly to me than most Pulitzer prize winning, Academic praised books!

Post Office is impossible to forget for its honest representation of the drudgery and mind-numbing repetition and tedium (and, yes, bulls*it) of ordinary life. It's also a celebration of the tenacity of a man who refused to cave in and conform! Don't miss reading this great book! Then check out Ham On Rye and his poetry books, like Sometimes You Get So Alone... and Love is a Dog From Hell, which are also wonderfully unpretentious. Another recent Amazon pick I liked was The Losers Club by Richard Perez, which others have mentioned in connection to Bukowski, part of neo-Bukowski school I guess. Anyway, that's enough from me. Read and I'll shut up.



Rating:
Summary: Post Office
Review: For all the working stiffs in America, who don't buy into anything except their certain death and that we have no choice but to make the most of it.

Rating:
Summary: "In the morning it was morning and I was still alive."
Review: If there's any lazy students out there looking for an easy book to do a book report on then I recommend "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski. It don't get any easier than this, the words literally fall off the page into your eyeballs!

The only things Henry Chinaski likes is drinkin', gambling', sleepin' and bangin'. Most of those things cost money so Chinaski takes a part-time job as a Christmas relief mailman. He spends a few hours a day ramming holiday cards into slots and as luck would have it he finds a lonely slot on his route that needs a special delivery. Henry likes the job and goes at it full-time. Three years of exciting adventures later Henry quits and decides to make his living at the racetrack.

Things go well until he meets some crazy horny broad who screws up his racket. It's back to the post office until 12 years later when he quits and goes on wild drunk that make a great ending to a thoroughly enjoyable book.

Charles Bukowski's writing is not supposed to be funny. I'm not sure how some of the disappointed reviewers on here got that idea, if anything his books are populated by characters that are trying to drown their pathetic lives and unfulfilled dreams in booze. If you want funny read David Sedaris. Nor do I believe that he's "America's greatest writer", I would give that destinction to John Steinbeck. What Charles Bukowski is though is honest, humane and wildly addictive. If you read one of his books, you might as well get ready to read them all. And that's a good thing.

Rating:
Summary: Workingman saga.
Review: Charles Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski narrates this profanely funny autobiographically based novel. Bukowski rather coarsely but fairly convincingly puts the lie to the conventional wisdom that honest work is an enobling experience.
In Post Office, Henry Chinaski reluctantly accepts employment first as a letter carrier and later as a postal clerk. You see, Henry has three expensive hobbies: drinking, fornicating and visiting racetracks. Without the steady income the post office provides, he would not be able to maintain his chosen lifestyle. So he compromises his principles and becomes a working stiff.
Using a number of illustrative vignettes, Bukowski brings to life the mind numbing drudgery and utter humiliation that comes part and parcel with many, if not most, jobs. For so many people, work is a trap, a collosal burden that saps their humanity. And this book does a beautiful job of showing just that.
There's also plenty of funny, irreverent material about the women in Henry's life. Some of whom he rather flippantly refers to as shack jobs.
Post Office is politically incorrect, vulgar and frequently offensive. But it is genuinely funny and a lot of truth can be found in its pages.


Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: After reading the reviews on this site, I ordered this book. I had expected the book to be keeping me laughing and yet, I don't think I laughed... ever. The tale seemed centered around a character who worked at the post office for no apparent reason and just fed his cravings for sex. The story was an easy read, I finished it in roughly two sittings but I wasn't satisfied with the tale. It didn't seem to have any direction and fell flat on the comedy front. Ultimately, I would only recommend it if you can't find anything else to read and are looking for a quick distraction.