Bukowski’s Post Office

 Anybody who writes, writes for a reason. There is something they want to communicate, some thing or some image that they want the world to have of them. They have a personal thing/agenda/philosophy that they want to put out in the world. Forget professional writers, even a random person on Instagram sharing a story or a reel on his/her/(hundred other pronouns that exist nowadays) profile has something personal to share with the people that follow him/her/(etc).

 

Charles Bukowski seems like an exception. At first instance, he might come across as a pessimistic, 'world-is-gonna-end', 'I-hate-everyone' kind of a writer who wants people to perceive him as a Dostoyevsky-type of a guy. 

But no, he is just writing to write. He is just smoking to smoke. He is just working to work. He is just drinking to drink. He is just earning money to earn money. He is just eating to eat. He is just having sex to have sex. 

He is sailing through life because he is sailing through life. He has no plan for the future, nor has he any impulse to do something in the immediate future. He does not blame his past for his behavior either. He is just being present.

 

He likes what he likes at that moment. He hates what he hates at that moment. He does what he wants to do at that moment.

It is extremely difficult to tell what kind of a person Bukowski is.

 

Post Office is the first book I read of his. It is basically a semi-autobiographical book about his experiences working in the US Post Office and the life he led during that time. So, he named the main character 'Henry Chinaski' (which rhymes Charles Bukowski). Like I said, there is no point of this book. There is no plot. He does not wat to say anything to anyone. There are just things happening to him.

Maybe, just maybe, he wants to entertain the readers. But, I’m not too sure.

 

But, below are a few adjectives that can be used to describe his book 'Post Office' and also his general way of writing:

 

1) Sarcastic/Funny

'Comedy in Tragedy' is a theme running through this whole book. However dark the situation might get in the story, Bukowski gets that one funny one-liner in there so that we are reminded that whatever he's experiencing is pretty normal and everybody in the world goes through shit like that and we ought not to feel pity for his character.

 

 

2) Fast/Pacy

The pace of the book is fast. Bukowski starts a scene and ends the scene and we are made completely aware of the situation/characters of the scene in very few words. It's like he doesn't want to waste words.

There is no building up to a scene and climax and all that kind of textbook-writing. There's no foreplay; he directly moves on to the main stuff and is finished with it, sometimes quite literally.

 

 

3) Unintentionally philosophical

I know I started this write-up by saying that Bukowski is not out to preach or out to critique the world in any manner, but you know, there are few lines in the book which are just too real and you cannot resist bookmarking them.

I don't want to explain them. I am gonna just paste a few lines below. These will get you hyped up:

 

“Food is good for the nerves and the spirit. Courage comes from the belly - all else is desperation.”

“I wasn’t much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.”

"Women were meant to suffer; no wonder they asked for constant declarations of love."

 

I know right!!!!!! What lines! You will definitely remember these lines when you read the book and find out why he has written them. They are just too perfect.

 

 

PS : Get ready to witness the biggest personal flex in any book. Bukowski ends the book saying:

"In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.

Maybe I’ll write a novel, I thought. 

And then I did."

 

 

BRO OUT.