Post Office: A Novel

If you ever worked at the Post Office, Bukowski described it to a tee. I don't think things have changed there in decades, especially the management's antics. It is comical of the situations the main character is put into by no choice of his own. The portions of the book outside the Post Office are a downhill rollercoaster of a tragic life. I did enjoy the book and would read other of his novels.

If you ever worked at the Post Office, Bukowski described it to a tee. I don't think things have changed there in decades, especially the management's antics. It is comical of the situations the main character is put into by no choice of his own. The portions of the book outside the Post Office are a downhill rollercoaster of a tragic life. I did enjoy the book and would read other of his novels.

Remember the smart but passive guy in your high school math class who did no work, attracted a certain kind of girl, always had a little money for beer, skipped school when it suited him, and didn't treat teachers as authority figures? Well, imagine that same guy 30 years later, working in the post office sticking mail. That's Hank Chinaski, the wily but nonchalant protagonist of the hilarious POST OFFICE, who is depressed by (but dependent on) a job in which "...all you moved was your right arm."

POST OFFICE is a funny novel with frequent laugh-out-loud moments. But the book also has a sad undertone, with Hank floating through life and letting good things slip away, such as women who make him happy or time with his baby daughter. But boozing Hank hardly notices through the haze of his hangover and the exhausting drudgery of work. He's too stupefied to do much more than tweak the postal tyrants and subtly defy the bureaucratic insanity, as he pushes the empty fifths under the bed.

In the final section of this book, Chinaski describes waking up from another binge. "In the morning, it was the morning and I was still alive." Believe it or not; but this sort of sums up Hank Chinaski in this terrific and funny book.

Post Office is the seconde book by Bukowski that I read (haven't finished yet). It amazes me the way he transforms a relatively uneventfull diary into a succession of riveting short stories all done with a lean writing style.

This book is a classic. Bukowski is a brilliant writer who takes you into his world like no one else can. It is an enjoyable and sometime funny story about his characters years working at the post office. I have to say I think of this book now every time I go to the Post Office.

I heard an interview with a man who recently released a documentary about Charles Bukowski. I got so enthused I bought several of his books. Almost all of the reviews I read were glowing. "LIFE CHANGING!" "MASTERPIECE!" "AWE INSPIRING!" Well, it was inspiring, but I'm not sure exactly what it inspired me to do. I read this book and felt nothing. No, I take that back. I felt like I was totally "not" getting the point or the genius. I didn't like the characters. I didn't like the story (I'm a government employee and I couldn't even relate to it!). But, I persevered and finished the book. Only to be left with one burning question....HUH? Seeing as how everyone seems to love Bukowski, I'm trying another one of his books. I'm giving him another shot. But I'm just not feeling it. Maybe it's a male/female difference of perspective. I just don't know.

First novel, best novel. Nails the brutal heartlessness of wage slavery with perfect accuracy, while at the same time painting a beautiful portrait of a truly messed up guy with a lot of talent struggling to keep his messed up self from drowning his talent in cheap wine and self-loathing. Sad, encouraging and funny, all at the same time. Bukowski's own "The Sun Also Rises."

This is my favorite Bukowski novel. It's so funny how he describes a job he hates. We've all been in similar situations and have to laugh at how Chinaski deals with them. Ham on Rye and Women are also great novels, but this one I feel is even better.

Charles Bukowski is described as the poet laureate of the working man. No doubt his fiction was shocking for its frankness and bitterness. But Bukowski's autobiographical novels leave out an important factor: Between the drinking, and the women and the nowhere jobs, the real Bukowski was a poet and a member of the avant garde. So while his post office colleagues lived the desperate pointless life Bukowski assigns to his alter ego Hank Chinaski, the author did not. He was always writing, always publishing, always living an unusual life, even though he worked at the post office. So read Post Office but fill in the blanks: Bukowski lived among the proletariat but he was not one of them.

The first novel I have read by Bukowski, "Post Office" is a tragically humorous novel following the author's life working for the U.S. post office. With major themes including alcoholism, gambling addiction, and womanizing, Bukowski's work is a brilliant look at the American low-life.

While the writing itself isn't bad, the character is a horrible, misogynistic person, much like Bukoski himself. At one point, he rapes someone while delivering mail. I'm all for dark and edgy books, but there's got to be more to a book than shock value.

When I bought this book, it was marketed as a guy at a nightmare job. While working at the post office is not ideal, the character makes it worse on himself at every turn. I don't have patience for anyone like that, real or imaginary.