Post Office: A Cult Classic Work of Gritty Realism and Dark Humor

I would rate this a 2.5 or maybe a 3. The 3 being only for the bittersweet telling of his relationship with Betty and his basic self-destruction afterward. Someone please explain to me what I am missing. I read all the rave reviews and I understand what they are saying, but overall I just found the whole narrative depressing and a waste of time. I was interested in reading some of his others, but after this one, I don't think so.

*I* work at the post office and this book made me ready to run for the hills. Nothing has changed in over 50 years. This is a time capsule that is darkly funny, but mostly just sad. The best part is the end, genuine and liberating. A quick read written in tiny chapters like diary entries. Easy to pick up and put down and pick up again fluidly.

Novels like this are rare, and writers like Charles Bukowski are one in a million. The word "authentic" comes to mind; his writing conveys a raw honesty and much needed non-mainstream point-of-view. Bukowski is the voice of dissent, the marginally employed, creatively frustrated working joe. Like the bird in the cage, his spirit is trapped in a world steeped in bureaucracy and bullsh*t. Post Office covers Bukowski's 12 years as a postal employee and it follows his difficult working life, which echoes the working life and frustrations of millions. I can't help but think of David Henry Thoreau's famous quote (which applies to Bukowski): "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." Bukowski, in fact, preaches a certain kind of civil disobedience. We're all raised to want the same things: family, material possesions, a house, "respectable" jobs. I think now more than ever, we need Bukowski, we need to challenge the status quo and not buy into a shallow culture of materialism at the cost of trading our souls. I recommend "Post Office" highly, also his poetry, particularly "You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense" and "The Last Night Of The Earth Poems." In addition, I recommend "A Working Stiff's Manifesto : A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember"

Hmm.One of the best books I've ever read. Period. Absent of pretension and predictable literary 'formula,' it sucks you in with street-wise grace and humor... existing in the face of numbing, oppresive and sometimes brutal conditions.I went to the library and conducted a few searches on Bukowski. He was never a millionnaire. He refused to leave a small-town publisher, John Martin, in Santa Rosa CA -- despite being courted by major publishing houses after the success of the film "Barfly" (for which he received a whopping 20,000). The fact is - Bukowski worked at the Post Office for 15 years, and slogged through an existence of crap-jobs and flophouses prior. He walked it liked he talked it.The simple and honest style is potent. He has the ability to take complicated issues dealing with the absurdity of life and put them down in a simple, flowing style -- without sacrficing depth (au contraire, the book seeps in after you've read it... and lingers).If, like the reviewer GC from Reno, you're looking for a traditional literary standard, you should go somewhere else. Convention is not welcome here. But, if you're open to a raw and sometimes brutal perspective, stripped of pretentious sentimentality and the boring predictability of popular literature, this is your stop.In its own weird way, it's a 'feel good' book.

Charles Bukowski's novel "Post Office" is the first-person account of Henry Chinaski, a hard-drinking gambler and womanizer who goes to work for the United States Postal Service in Los Angeles. The story follows his experiences at the post office, weaving them together with his accounts of romantic affairs, sexual encounters, drinking, and gambling. Chinaski's life is full of encounters with various unsavory, tragic, or ridiculous characters."Post Office" is the ultimate "I hate this job" story. It's also an intriguing, and highly unflattering look at a quintessential American institution. Bukowski's prose style is crude, rude, and raw; often very funny, sometimes shocking, and sometimes poignant. But always highly readable. Bukowski effectively evokes a vision of a mind-numbing, soul-killing workplace that is ruled by a petty bureaucracy.On one level, "Post Office" seems to have much in common with a classic "social protest" novel like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," which also portrays the suffering and degradation experienced by the working person. But ultimately, "Post Office" seems like another species of novel altogether. Bukowski tells his story in a matter-of-fact style; he doesn't seem to care about offending or impressing anyone, and seems to offer no social agenda. He just tells it like it is. A fascinating book by an author who, I increasingly believe, is truly in a class all his own.

This is the one, the book that launched Bukowski beyond small press cultdom, the book that launched Black Sparrow past its humble position in the publishing world, and its the book that to this day still initiates readers into the wild, wild realm of Henry Chinaski. This is the first Buk book I ever read, and remains my all time favorite. Is it his best book? No, my vote would go to HAM ON RYE for that, but it is, in my opinion, his wildest and most fun read of all! Along with CATCHER IN THE RYE, CATCH 22, and SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, POST OFFICE should be regarded, and taught, as a CLASSIC American comic masterpiece! Kudos to any high school lit teacher or college prof with the balls to make this book required reading. If you've never read Bukowski, this is the place to start. If you've read all of Bukowski, and there are many of you out there, read this one again...just for the hell of it. Why not?