Factotum

by Charles Bukowski

Book Overview

"The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles."--Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author

"He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels."--Leonard Cohen, songwriter

One of Charles Bukowski's best, this beer-soaked, deliciously degenerate novel follows the wanderings of aspiring writer Henry Chinaski across World War II-era America. Deferred from military service, Chinaski travels from city to city, moving listlessly from one odd job to another,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0876852630
• ISBN13: 9780876852637
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Bukowski's best

I've read most of Bukowski's work. In my humble opinion this is Bukowski at his bare-knuckle best. You can sense the desperation in his writing. He's young and hungry. Still a contender. I wonder what happened to the elf. I think that I worked with him at Harris Bakery in Maine many years ago.

one of Bukowski's best

The quality of Bukowski's poetry is questionable. His short stories are very sharp, very desperate, very amused. Tthe short stories are what Bukowski did best, while his novels are of very uneven quality. This said, the three novels of Bukowski's trilogy (Factotum, Post Office, Women) are his best novels and factotum is the best of the three. Women was written and published in the late 1970s when Bukowski or his alter ego Henry Chinaski was already an establihsed professional writer. Post Office covers the years in which he Bukowski had a sort of regular job and regular life. Factotum is the story of the young Bukowski, the Bukowski that was rolling from a job to another, from a town to another, from a woman to another, in an impressive collections of failures--failed jobs, failed relationships, failed everything all told with a considerable amount of irony. It's a very interesting read, to say the least. Five stars.

If you're starting on Bukowski- Start here.

I'm going to keep this review short and simple for you. This is the second book Bukowski wrote, and its a really good place to start if you are looking to get into Bukowski. The book is filled with short chapters that involve the years Bukowski called his "ten year drunk." The book chronicles his road trip around the United States, just at the time he was starting to become famous.Its a quick read that includes many of the offbeat and unique observations that this guy makes about the world. You'll laugh every page.Be careful, though. Reading Bukowski can completely change the way you look at things. The day after reading this book you'll have a little less regard for the little things that usually bother people, and a little more confidence in yourself.

an enjoyable and intelligent read

This is the third book of Bukowski's that i have read (the first two were "Post Office" and "Hollywood") and thus far it is my favorite. This book is composed of a series of short passages, 87 total. This book is mostly about Henry Chinaski (meaning, for the most part, Charles Bukowski) drinking, having sex with women who drink, and moving from job to job. I dont know how many jobs Chinaski has in this book, but he often holds them only long enough for a single one-page section. If there is any unity in terms of story and plot in this book, it is found in the women, such as Jan and Laura, who manage to stay in Chinaski's life for a few jobs; the women serve to string together the sections. More significant than any plot are the various interwoven themes that Bukowski deals with, such as futility, solitary existence, and death (all themes that might lead us to link Bukowski with existentialist philosophy). These ideas (among others) are all related, and also related to the ways in which they are expressed, namely, through alcohol, cheap sex, disgust towards humanity, and peacefulness in the strangest situations-- and of course, Henry Chinaski's inability to hold a job or even have any desire to do so. On one hand, this book is a quick and light read; on the other hand, a close read that keeps in mind the interplay between the different themes involved truly exposes the genius of Bukowski. Overall, this is a book that for the most part ends where it begins (it begins with Chinaki arriving in New Orleans and "looking for the poor section" and ends in a go-go bar, with Chinaski holding his last 38 cents), but this circularity, i find, is intimate to the theme of futility: why go anywhere? why do anything? As Bukowski writes in the movie "Barfly", "Who made up this rule that everybody has to 'be somebody'?" Chinaski doesn't refuse to "be somebody" (remember, he has a great will to write), but he refuses to do it in terms set by other people; he refuses to define himself in terms of occupation, and other surface illusions--as to be somebody in such a way, he finds, is far too confining. On a side note, it seems as if Bukowski lifted a lot of material from this book when writing the script for "Barfly," as Laura becomes Wanda in the film and both the book and the film have Wilbur, among other similarities. Overall, this is a fine book that is both an enjoyable read and constantly impresses the reader with clever insights into what we often take as ordinary.

Bukowski at his finest.

When it comes to putting down on paper how it feels to be a loner, and yet not alone.How it feels to be on the brink of madness from the mundaneness of life . Well then nobody does it quite like Bukowski. The beauty of his work is that you are unsure where the boundaries between fiction and fact are. Sure we know that his main character 'Henry Chinaski' is just his own alias. But Bukowski when asked whether his work is completely autobiographical would say ' No, I write fiction . Which is reality improved upon. I can assure the first time reader , of Bukowski's work that you are in for a treat (as well as a few shocks). Bukowski lived life on his terms , and you may not like the moral universe he created for himself , but he didn't take the easy route , and you got to respect that.So go ahead buy it. But watch out. For a drunken loser who liked nothing more than to nurse a bottle of the ole Grape , the man was prolific. And once you read a little Bukowski you just gotta have some more.P.S. Oh by the way , it would have been nice for Charles to have written his life life in clearly defined episodes but unfortunately (probably on purpose) he did not .So if you are not careful you will read the story of an old lecher before you read about the boy. Try Ham and Rye (Henry Chinaski's early years), that starts the mayhem that was Bukowski's life.