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Post Office: A Novel
 
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Post Office: A Novel (Paperback)

by Charles Bukowski (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 16.99
Price: CDN$ 12.40 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Product Description

Product Description

"It began as a mistake." By middle age, Henry Chinaski has lost more than twelve years of his life to the U.S. Postal Service. In a world where his three true, bitter pleasures are women, booze, and racetrack betting, he somehow drags his hangover out of bed every dawn to lug waterlogged mailbags up mud-soaked mountains, outsmart vicious guard dogs, and pray to survive the day-to-day trials of sadistic bosses and certifiable coworkers. This classic 1971 novel—the one that catapulted its author to national fame—is the perfect introduction to the grimly hysterical world of legendary writer, poet, and Dirty Old Man Charles Bukowski and his fictional alter ego, Chinaski.



About the Author

Charles Bukowski is one of America's best-known contemporary writers of poetry and prose, and, many would claim, its most influential and imitated poet. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and raised in Los Angeles, where he lived for fifty years. He published his first story in 1944, when he was twenty-four, and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. He died in San Pedro, California, on March 9, 1994, at the age of seventy-three, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp.

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Post Office: A Novel
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Customer Reviews

81 Reviews
5 star:
 (50)
4 star:
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3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "It started as a mistake" ... and became Bukowski's greatest, Jul 2 2004
By Brennon Slattery (Davie, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Post Office (Paperback)
"Post Office" is Bukowski's first book. He wrote it in three weeks. When his publisher asked how he'd written so fast, and what his motivations were, Bukowski answered simply: "Fear."

Judging from the text -- and the accounts of people featured in the book saying it's 100% truthful and authentic -- there must have been a lot of fear in Bukowski's life at the time. Constantly poor, with ever-evolving woman problems, Bukowski resorted to the bottle and tried to solve his problems with alcoholism. Of course we all know alcoholism creates more problems than it solves, but in Bukowski's eyes, it was the only refuge from a madcap insane world.

Buk's writing goes straight for the throat. His short, simple sentences are deceivingly perceptive and illuminative. You'll be shocked at points to feel your heart soften as Buk's poetic lines ease into your soul like a tired drunk flopping on a couch. He is that good.

Inspired by John Fante -- another good writer -- Bukowski decided to skip all the unnecessary garbage in other writer's writing and keep everything simple. In that way, "Post Office" is very Hemingway, but simpler, and anybody can pick this book up, read it in a day, and enjoy it immensely. It's almost like it's written for children.

Except, of course, for the adult themes. There's a rape scene in this book that is probably the only funny rape scene ever depicted in American literature. And rape isn't funny. Somehow, Bukowski disarms the reader with his simplicity and cynical sense of humor, and allows anything he says to be cute and interesting. It's almost impossible to be offended by Bukowski, and if you are, well, this just isn't the book for you.

Bukowski is very popular with college students who're just trying to stretch their drinking/writing legs. Unfortunately for everybody except Buk, who died in 1994, nobody can copy his writing style no matter how hard they try. I went to Emerson College in Boston, and many people -- including myself -- tried to infuse their writing with the simplicity and poetic nature Bukowski has, but for some reason, it's virtually impossible. He makes it look easy. It's not.

Check it out. Drink a beer. Have a good time. Bukowski won't let the average or above-average reader down. It's those sub par readers he'll anger and disappoint.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Hilariously Deadpan Slice of Existential Misery, Jan 7 2008
By Benjamin Anderson (Fredericton, NB CAN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
What a book! I've been a fan of Bukowski's poetry for a while bust just recently delved into his prose. Much like the man's verse, Post Office is gritty, brutal, cynical, jaded, and, most importantly, HONEST. Henry Chinaski (Bukowski's alter-ego) is a pretty unlikeable fellow on the whole. He is a drunk, he is a compulsive gambler, he is a womanizer and beater, though there is still a charm inherent within his ramblings. He shows positive emotion toward a few characters (Fey especially), and seems to take difficult occurances in stride.

A great book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious yet sad, Jul 9 2009
By SH (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Post Office (Paperback)
Post Office by Charles Bukowski is a very short novel that should only be read by older readers because of the numerous references to women and sex. There isn't really a climax to the story because it revolves around work, but it has humour throughout, thus it will not bore the reader. I did not like that the women in the novel are seen as worthless things that are only there for Henry to sleep with and are not good for anything else.

Post Office is written through the eyes of Henry Chinaski, a middle aged man, whose life revolves around drinking and women. Henry's life at the U.S. Postal Service began as a mistake during Christmas season when the post office would hire anyone.

As a substitute mail carrier, Henry tells about his life at the post office and his carelessness of his work. There are his superiors with impossible demands, and Henry talking back to them and disappearing from work for days at a time. Every morning when he comes into work, he has a hangover. Henry hates work and his workplace is unorganized and irrational, yet he must earn to survive.

After getting bored of the post office numerous times, Henry quits, yet always makes it back there after going through different jobs and different women. Although Henry describes his life humorously, he seems like a terribly lonely man, which will seem more noticeable in the later parts of the novel. The story then continues in Charles Bukowski's other novel called Women.

4.5/5
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While it is very much the norm in modern literature to focus on the self as the central theme of the writer's work, the novelist choses this motif at his own peril. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Warts and all ... a great read.
Great? I guess that subjective, right? But there's something about the rawness of the storytelling here that really appealed to me. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Johnny Cash Prison album
I can't pretend I've lived a life much like Bukowski's. I can't say I want to. But reading about it is a riot.

Why isn't this book taught in schools? Read more
Published on April 26 2007 by Matthew Wilkinson

4.0 out of 5 stars One of our great american writers
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5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and Raw
Bukowski is an acquired taste. His bluntness and rawness is not for everyone. He's NOT a mainstream author; and nowhere is this more evident than in POST OFFICE, which is an... Read more
Published on Jun 10 2005 by Jonathan Day

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Real Life" Novel!
There are very few novels like "POST OFFICE": a book that conveys the dreariness of a lousy job, a novel of dreams deferred, a novel that portrays the many compromises a... Read more
Published on Jun 9 2005 by Lee Geston

5.0 out of 5 stars Priority Mail
We read and discussed two books for our book club last session: Post Office by Charles Bukowski, and Little New York B-stard by M. Read more
Published on Jul 6 2004 by Jody Diblasio

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, Raw and Vulgar
Next to The Losers' Club by Richard Perez, Post Office by Charles Bukowski is the most simple, enjoyable and funny book I've read this year. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars An Original! Don't Miss it!
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... Read more
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