Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, Ham on Rye, is the semi-autobiographical story of the early years of his alter ego Henry Chinaski. It is a finely written and honest account of the painful childhood of a boy marked out from his peers. Regularly beaten by his father, Chinaski is shown growing through his difficult and violent adolescence (struck with the worst case of acne his doctors have ever seen) through to the first jobs he can't and won't hold down. In this moving story of growing up Bukowski disciplines his muscular, concentrated writing and creates a novel that distils his poetry into the finest full-length piece of prose that he ever wrote. Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he's great.

Sadly, best known as the alcoholic inspiration for the film Barfly (an experience he reflected on in his book Hollywood), it is as a poet, rather than a drunk, that Bukowski should be best remembered. His bitter, caustic, direct, humane, damaged poetry reflects a life dominated by poverty and booze. His poetry stretches over many, many volumes but Bukowski also wrote great novels: all of them have many faults but the first four books he wrote shine for similar reasons. Post Office and Factotum both dissect, quite brilliantly, the life of an angry, poor man forced to do mindless jobs, pushed around and considered mindless by the fools who force him to do them. Women, as Roddy Doyle points out in his short introduction, continues the themes but focuses on the numerous women who share his hero's bed and bottle. --Mark Thwaite

Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

The Beginnings of Bukowski, 15 Feb 2008
Bukowski's formative years laid bare. No shirking from a fully detailed relation of his torment and tormentors. A writer unafraid to tell it like it is. Disarms all with frank statements and vivid recollection of mood, emotion, settings, names and places, his excellent memory is part revenge on all those that crossed him over the years. As always he manages to capture all those thoughts and feelings, that for most people are purposefully buried deep down beyond retrieval, expose them on the page with seemingly no effort, definitely no pretense and sign his name.

Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

The Beginnings of Bukowski, 15 Feb 2008
Bukowski's formative years laid bare. No shirking from a fully detailed relation of his torment and tormentors. A writer unafraid to tell it like it is. Disarms all with frank statements and vivid recollection of mood, emotion, settings, names and places, his excellent memory is part revenge on all those that crossed him over the years. As always he manages to capture all those thoughts and feelings, that for most people are purposefully buried deep down beyond retrieval, expose them on the page with seemingly no effort, definitely no pretense and sign his name.

One of his best, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski is perhaps an aquired taste - if you like simple books about almost nothing that are both funny and sad all at once then this one is for you.

Chinaski Tests Bottom, 05 Oct 2007
In FACTOTUM, Charles Bukowski follows his alter-ego Hank Chinaski through a sequence of 19 menial jobs. For each, Buk shows how Hank gets, experiences, and then loses a job, while the core activity in his life is really boozing.

Take, by the way, this description of FACTOTUM. Then, replace the subject of menial jobs with the subject of strangely worshipful women. What you get is a decent description of WOMEN, Buk's hilarious novel about the mature and successful Chinaski. For this reader, Bukowski's ability to write in such parallel structures is almost eerie.

In FACTOTUM, Bukowski presents the young Chinaski, who is just beginning to define himself as a writer and to gain some recognition for his work. In contrast, Chinaski is an established poet in WOMEN and pursued, to his incredulous delight, by attractive but crazy women, who feed his verse. While WOMEN is hilarious, the humor--in my opinion--isn't really there in FACTOTUM. Instead, this novel is a story about sly but self-destructive integrity, with the young Chinaski willing to live a very marginal existence, since this is the life that makes sense to him. I don't think Bukowski is writing with a message. Even so, young Hank is "just saying no" to work until he achieves the work that he wants.

Once again, Bukowski uses a very clear and direct style in this novel. In fact, I don't remember a single striking metaphor or simile in FACTOTUM. In a way, his writing is the opposite of his poetry (I'm reading THE ROOMING HOUSE MADRIGALS), with Bukowski seldom, if ever, pulling a wry or melancholy or thoughtful subtext out a short poetic narrative. Instead, the style in FACTOTUM is straightforward while the voice is consistently that of an alienated boozer who has "realized everything is a hoax" (page 61).

FACTOTUM is amusing but not hilarious. It is also occasionally grim, especially when Bukowski lets Hank test bottom and, oh, say, soil himself. This is an easy read and a good novel but not for the squeamish.


Grimly brilliant, brilliantly grim, 17 Nov 2005
This book is not uplifting. Bukowski pulls no punches in his description of a writer fighting for success, while fighting a losing battle against his own demons and apathy. Simply can't believe someone turned this into a film. Bukowski simply has to be read as a great American writer, shining a light on a part of America in the twentieth century that is not often looked at. His style is economical and fast paced, and you swiftly get drawn into a tale of characters doing really very little except messing up their lives. Don't read it when your down and alone.

chinaski as bandini, 17 Oct 2005
Factotum was the second of Buk's novels, falling between Post Office and Women. Post Office was all about Chinaski (the alter ego) finding writing out of the menial life of a post office worker. Factotum filled in Chinaski's 20s, the period when he really ran away and learned to rage, to fight and to drink. Arguably i would say that this is the classic depiction of Bukowski as the 'down-and-out' that everyone associates him as. Peculiarly (or perhaps not) there is a lot of resonance here with Fante's 'Road to Los Angeles' and the Arturo Bandini we see in that book. I think this is as close as Bukowski ever came to imitating the work of his hero and yet it must have been unkowingly achieved, because Factotum ended up being published first. Still, to me the two are sister novels.

Although i wouldn't rate Factotum as the finest piece of Bukowski (i think the short stories and poetry are where his genius lie) i think it is crucial to understanding and loving his outlook on the world; it sucks, so lets drink and fight our way through it.

Pick Up A Copy!, 28 Jul 2004
Just picked up Factotum by Bukowski, after reading The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Strange 'cause both books are somehow related. The connection? The drudgery of menial work! The dehumanizing affects of a life-wasting occupation is an underlying theme, mixed with accounts of failed relationships and an overall freefloating narrative structure. In Factotum, Buk recounts his mostly autobiographical adventures as a floating unemployed (and often unemployable) menial worker. He travels from state to state, writing and collecting rejection letters from magazines, and tries to deal with the unending humiliation of low-paying jobs and rat-trap apartments and fragile relationships. Often, he ends up hitting the bottle and, in bars, ends up meeting up with fellow drunks and losers and desperate ladies struggling to scrape by. There's humor here but also a lot of truth, some it stark and grim. One line that blew me away, gave me chills was: "Ain't no women on skid row." This was over Chinaski's anxiety regarding a female drinking companion. The style of the book is simple and easy and direct, and I found myself sucked into it right away. A child could read this book. I also read the whole book in one day, which for me is a first. Definitely pick up a copy of this novel. It's not as famous as his other novels, but as a memorable account/study of a "working stiff," worth owning, especially if you like Buk and his "down and out" view of life and appreciate his humor.

Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

The Beginnings of Bukowski, 15 Feb 2008
Bukowski's formative years laid bare. No shirking from a fully detailed relation of his torment and tormentors. A writer unafraid to tell it like it is. Disarms all with frank statements and vivid recollection of mood, emotion, settings, names and places, his excellent memory is part revenge on all those that crossed him over the years. As always he manages to capture all those thoughts and feelings, that for most people are purposefully buried deep down beyond retrieval, expose them on the page with seemingly no effort, definitely no pretense and sign his name.

One of his best, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski is perhaps an aquired taste - if you like simple books about almost nothing that are both funny and sad all at once then this one is for you.

Chinaski Tests Bottom, 05 Oct 2007
In FACTOTUM, Charles Bukowski follows his alter-ego Hank Chinaski through a sequence of 19 menial jobs. For each, Buk shows how Hank gets, experiences, and then loses a job, while the core activity in his life is really boozing.

Take, by the way, this description of FACTOTUM. Then, replace the subject of menial jobs with the subject of strangely worshipful women. What you get is a decent description of WOMEN, Buk's hilarious novel about the mature and successful Chinaski. For this reader, Bukowski's ability to write in such parallel structures is almost eerie.

In FACTOTUM, Bukowski presents the young Chinaski, who is just beginning to define himself as a writer and to gain some recognition for his work. In contrast, Chinaski is an established poet in WOMEN and pursued, to his incredulous delight, by attractive but crazy women, who feed his verse. While WOMEN is hilarious, the humor--in my opinion--isn't really there in FACTOTUM. Instead, this novel is a story about sly but self-destructive integrity, with the young Chinaski willing to live a very marginal existence, since this is the life that makes sense to him. I don't think Bukowski is writing with a message. Even so, young Hank is "just saying no" to work until he achieves the work that he wants.

Once again, Bukowski uses a very clear and direct style in this novel. In fact, I don't remember a single striking metaphor or simile in FACTOTUM. In a way, his writing is the opposite of his poetry (I'm reading THE ROOMING HOUSE MADRIGALS), with Bukowski seldom, if ever, pulling a wry or melancholy or thoughtful subtext out a short poetic narrative. Instead, the style in FACTOTUM is straightforward while the voice is consistently that of an alienated boozer who has "realized everything is a hoax" (page 61).

FACTOTUM is amusing but not hilarious. It is also occasionally grim, especially when Bukowski lets Hank test bottom and, oh, say, soil himself. This is an easy read and a good novel but not for the squeamish.


Grimly brilliant, brilliantly grim, 17 Nov 2005
This book is not uplifting. Bukowski pulls no punches in his description of a writer fighting for success, while fighting a losing battle against his own demons and apathy. Simply can't believe someone turned this into a film. Bukowski simply has to be read as a great American writer, shining a light on a part of America in the twentieth century that is not often looked at. His style is economical and fast paced, and you swiftly get drawn into a tale of characters doing really very little except messing up their lives. Don't read it when your down and alone.

chinaski as bandini, 17 Oct 2005
Factotum was the second of Buk's novels, falling between Post Office and Women. Post Office was all about Chinaski (the alter ego) finding writing out of the menial life of a post office worker. Factotum filled in Chinaski's 20s, the period when he really ran away and learned to rage, to fight and to drink. Arguably i would say that this is the classic depiction of Bukowski as the 'down-and-out' that everyone associates him as. Peculiarly (or perhaps not) there is a lot of resonance here with Fante's 'Road to Los Angeles' and the Arturo Bandini we see in that book. I think this is as close as Bukowski ever came to imitating the work of his hero and yet it must have been unkowingly achieved, because Factotum ended up being published first. Still, to me the two are sister novels.

Although i wouldn't rate Factotum as the finest piece of Bukowski (i think the short stories and poetry are where his genius lie) i think it is crucial to understanding and loving his outlook on the world; it sucks, so lets drink and fight our way through it.

Pick Up A Copy!, 28 Jul 2004
Just picked up Factotum by Bukowski, after reading The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Strange 'cause both books are somehow related. The connection? The drudgery of menial work! The dehumanizing affects of a life-wasting occupation is an underlying theme, mixed with accounts of failed relationships and an overall freefloating narrative structure. In Factotum, Buk recounts his mostly autobiographical adventures as a floating unemployed (and often unemployable) menial worker. He travels from state to state, writing and collecting rejection letters from magazines, and tries to deal with the unending humiliation of low-paying jobs and rat-trap apartments and fragile relationships. Often, he ends up hitting the bottle and, in bars, ends up meeting up with fellow drunks and losers and desperate ladies struggling to scrape by. There's humor here but also a lot of truth, some it stark and grim. One line that blew me away, gave me chills was: "Ain't no women on skid row." This was over Chinaski's anxiety regarding a female drinking companion. The style of the book is simple and easy and direct, and I found myself sucked into it right away. A child could read this book. I also read the whole book in one day, which for me is a first. Definitely pick up a copy of this novel. It's not as famous as his other novels, but as a memorable account/study of a "working stiff," worth owning, especially if you like Buk and his "down and out" view of life and appreciate his humor.

My favourite Buk book, 22 Oct 2008
"I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years. I had no women friends. I looked at them as i passed them on the streets or wherever i saw them, but i looked at them without yearning and with a sense of futility. The idea of having a relationship with a woman was beyond my imagination."

Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Bukowski aka Henry Chinaski writes about beer, cheap cigars, gambling and relationships with women.
"Women" is a semi-autobiographical novel that revolves around Henry Chinaski, a 50 yer old poet. Henry's finally beginning to experience some professional success, and he's milking it for all it's worth by indulging in alcohol; blowing his money at the track, and sleeping with as many women as he can get his nicotine stained hands on. I lost count of the number of women Henry screws in this book, but it's astronomically high, and every sexual encounter is described in very graphic detail "Steve McQueen would not have done better."

However, this isn't just a run-down of all the women Henry's been with. It's also an honest look at a life that's a lot less fulfilling than it may look on the outside, and an alcoholic man who's actually a pretty sad case.

I loved "Women". It comes straight from the heart. I love the author's writing style and Henry is a fantastic character, but he really doesn't seem to evolve much over the course of the novel, and things just got a bit monotonous towards the end as it is the longest Bukowski book printed.

PS. If you think Bukowski has no heart, no soul and is closed off to feelings of love/tenderness i recommend you read his poetry to see how wrong you are. 'One for old Snaggle-tooth' is a case in point.
Brendan Clarke.

But not for women..., 18 Jun 2008
I completely agree with the previous reviewer who said that this book has no heart and no tenderness. It is maybe the point that the narrator is repulsive and gross and treats women just like slabs of meat but it doesn't make for enjoyable reading, not to me, and the way the women behave is so untrue to life. You might get one woman like that, but not a whole string of them. And for a book about sex it's one hundred per cent unsexy. Our hero spends his life drinking and then vomiting. I just didn't see the point in writing, or reading a book like this. I honestly wouldn't bother. Sorry.

Don't have the heart to give it three stars, 31 May 2008
I know Bukowski fans are going to be upset with me, but I couldn't warm to this book, the same way I couldn't warm to TROPIC OF CANCER. It was just too raw and "down" for my taste. Still, I read it from cover to cover.

Bukowski's style is certainly unique and I have to admit I was drawn in, but some of the terms and descriptions were too much for me. Perhaps I was expecting more a "Hunter Thompson" type of book, with an edge but also some dash of flippancy. True, there is humour in WOMEN, but it was just a bit too edgy for my taste---and I've read NAKED LUNCH!

What I find infinitely more fascinating than Bukowski's books, is the man himself, though I realize you can't really separate the two of them. The man seems to actually have more of a following in the UK than in his own country, and I find this fascinating. If anyone can recommend a bio, please do. Again, I realize a lot of his work (okay, all of it) is terribly autobiographical, but I'd like to read the full-out other person's point of view on the man.

Graphic, 21 Apr 2008
This is one of the more graphic Bukowski novels and, at times, can get repetitive - but still his mixture of hatred and warmth makes it another highly readable novel.

Sorry Buko but a bit... boring, 26 Sep 2007
I popped my Bukowski cherry with Post Office and was enthralled, and my enchantment lasted through Ham on Rye, his short story collections, Pulp and some poetry collections. Most recently I read the excellent biography Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life. It's not like I am unfamiliar with the themes and style of Mr B is what I'm saying. But Women really turned me off. It's the emptiness I guess. Even in Post Office, even when he's at his lowest ebb, there's a vitality there which crackles and a tenderness, a human quality which is touching. That is absent in Women, and the drunk but interesting Chinaski is now the drunk but boring man you wish would go away and stop droning on. Same same same. Also the sheer amount of conquests is unbelievable. Maybe some women are drawn to fat ugly men with good legs, a jaded world view and serious drink problem. Even the lack of respect he habitually shows for most of these women is shallow and so unbelievable (though the women most of the time don't set themselves up for respect). It's like my uncle trying to be sexy and cool (no offence uncle m!) and failing miserably. There is no depth to any of it, no passion, no truth (and as a poet you need truth), no insight. I'm constantly reminded of a grumpy old man who wrinkles his nose at dirt and wishes to keep his hands clean - a trouser folder. This is especially true after reading the biography and accessing a clearer picture of the real Bukowski.

Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

The Beginnings of Bukowski, 15 Feb 2008
Bukowski's formative years laid bare. No shirking from a fully detailed relation of his torment and tormentors. A writer unafraid to tell it like it is. Disarms all with frank statements and vivid recollection of mood, emotion, settings, names and places, his excellent memory is part revenge on all those that crossed him over the years. As always he manages to capture all those thoughts and feelings, that for most people are purposefully buried deep down beyond retrieval, expose them on the page with seemingly no effort, definitely no pretense and sign his name.

One of his best, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski is perhaps an aquired taste - if you like simple books about almost nothing that are both funny and sad all at once then this one is for you.

Chinaski Tests Bottom, 05 Oct 2007
In FACTOTUM, Charles Bukowski follows his alter-ego Hank Chinaski through a sequence of 19 menial jobs. For each, Buk shows how Hank gets, experiences, and then loses a job, while the core activity in his life is really boozing.

Take, by the way, this description of FACTOTUM. Then, replace the subject of menial jobs with the subject of strangely worshipful women. What you get is a decent description of WOMEN, Buk's hilarious novel about the mature and successful Chinaski. For this reader, Bukowski's ability to write in such parallel structures is almost eerie.

In FACTOTUM, Bukowski presents the young Chinaski, who is just beginning to define himself as a writer and to gain some recognition for his work. In contrast, Chinaski is an established poet in WOMEN and pursued, to his incredulous delight, by attractive but crazy women, who feed his verse. While WOMEN is hilarious, the humor--in my opinion--isn't really there in FACTOTUM. Instead, this novel is a story about sly but self-destructive integrity, with the young Chinaski willing to live a very marginal existence, since this is the life that makes sense to him. I don't think Bukowski is writing with a message. Even so, young Hank is "just saying no" to work until he achieves the work that he wants.

Once again, Bukowski uses a very clear and direct style in this novel. In fact, I don't remember a single striking metaphor or simile in FACTOTUM. In a way, his writing is the opposite of his poetry (I'm reading THE ROOMING HOUSE MADRIGALS), with Bukowski seldom, if ever, pulling a wry or melancholy or thoughtful subtext out a short poetic narrative. Instead, the style in FACTOTUM is straightforward while the voice is consistently that of an alienated boozer who has "realized everything is a hoax" (page 61).

FACTOTUM is amusing but not hilarious. It is also occasionally grim, especially when Bukowski lets Hank test bottom and, oh, say, soil himself. This is an easy read and a good novel but not for the squeamish.


Grimly brilliant, brilliantly grim, 17 Nov 2005
This book is not uplifting. Bukowski pulls no punches in his description of a writer fighting for success, while fighting a losing battle against his own demons and apathy. Simply can't believe someone turned this into a film. Bukowski simply has to be read as a great American writer, shining a light on a part of America in the twentieth century that is not often looked at. His style is economical and fast paced, and you swiftly get drawn into a tale of characters doing really very little except messing up their lives. Don't read it when your down and alone.

chinaski as bandini, 17 Oct 2005
Factotum was the second of Buk's novels, falling between Post Office and Women. Post Office was all about Chinaski (the alter ego) finding writing out of the menial life of a post office worker. Factotum filled in Chinaski's 20s, the period when he really ran away and learned to rage, to fight and to drink. Arguably i would say that this is the classic depiction of Bukowski as the 'down-and-out' that everyone associates him as. Peculiarly (or perhaps not) there is a lot of resonance here with Fante's 'Road to Los Angeles' and the Arturo Bandini we see in that book. I think this is as close as Bukowski ever came to imitating the work of his hero and yet it must have been unkowingly achieved, because Factotum ended up being published first. Still, to me the two are sister novels.

Although i wouldn't rate Factotum as the finest piece of Bukowski (i think the short stories and poetry are where his genius lie) i think it is crucial to understanding and loving his outlook on the world; it sucks, so lets drink and fight our way through it.

Pick Up A Copy!, 28 Jul 2004
Just picked up Factotum by Bukowski, after reading The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Strange 'cause both books are somehow related. The connection? The drudgery of menial work! The dehumanizing affects of a life-wasting occupation is an underlying theme, mixed with accounts of failed relationships and an overall freefloating narrative structure. In Factotum, Buk recounts his mostly autobiographical adventures as a floating unemployed (and often unemployable) menial worker. He travels from state to state, writing and collecting rejection letters from magazines, and tries to deal with the unending humiliation of low-paying jobs and rat-trap apartments and fragile relationships. Often, he ends up hitting the bottle and, in bars, ends up meeting up with fellow drunks and losers and desperate ladies struggling to scrape by. There's humor here but also a lot of truth, some it stark and grim. One line that blew me away, gave me chills was: "Ain't no women on skid row." This was over Chinaski's anxiety regarding a female drinking companion. The style of the book is simple and easy and direct, and I found myself sucked into it right away. A child could read this book. I also read the whole book in one day, which for me is a first. Definitely pick up a copy of this novel. It's not as famous as his other novels, but as a memorable account/study of a "working stiff," worth owning, especially if you like Buk and his "down and out" view of life and appreciate his humor.

My favourite Buk book, 22 Oct 2008
"I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years. I had no women friends. I looked at them as i passed them on the streets or wherever i saw them, but i looked at them without yearning and with a sense of futility. The idea of having a relationship with a woman was beyond my imagination."

Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Bukowski aka Henry Chinaski writes about beer, cheap cigars, gambling and relationships with women.
"Women" is a semi-autobiographical novel that revolves around Henry Chinaski, a 50 yer old poet. Henry's finally beginning to experience some professional success, and he's milking it for all it's worth by indulging in alcohol; blowing his money at the track, and sleeping with as many women as he can get his nicotine stained hands on. I lost count of the number of women Henry screws in this book, but it's astronomically high, and every sexual encounter is described in very graphic detail "Steve McQueen would not have done better."

However, this isn't just a run-down of all the women Henry's been with. It's also an honest look at a life that's a lot less fulfilling than it may look on the outside, and an alcoholic man who's actually a pretty sad case.

I loved "Women". It comes straight from the heart. I love the author's writing style and Henry is a fantastic character, but he really doesn't seem to evolve much over the course of the novel, and things just got a bit monotonous towards the end as it is the longest Bukowski book printed.

PS. If you think Bukowski has no heart, no soul and is closed off to feelings of love/tenderness i recommend you read his poetry to see how wrong you are. 'One for old Snaggle-tooth' is a case in point.
Brendan Clarke.

But not for women..., 18 Jun 2008
I completely agree with the previous reviewer who said that this book has no heart and no tenderness. It is maybe the point that the narrator is repulsive and gross and treats women just like slabs of meat but it doesn't make for enjoyable reading, not to me, and the way the women behave is so untrue to life. You might get one woman like that, but not a whole string of them. And for a book about sex it's one hundred per cent unsexy. Our hero spends his life drinking and then vomiting. I just didn't see the point in writing, or reading a book like this. I honestly wouldn't bother. Sorry.

Don't have the heart to give it three stars, 31 May 2008
I know Bukowski fans are going to be upset with me, but I couldn't warm to this book, the same way I couldn't warm to TROPIC OF CANCER. It was just too raw and "down" for my taste. Still, I read it from cover to cover.

Bukowski's style is certainly unique and I have to admit I was drawn in, but some of the terms and descriptions were too much for me. Perhaps I was expecting more a "Hunter Thompson" type of book, with an edge but also some dash of flippancy. True, there is humour in WOMEN, but it was just a bit too edgy for my taste---and I've read NAKED LUNCH!

What I find infinitely more fascinating than Bukowski's books, is the man himself, though I realize you can't really separate the two of them. The man seems to actually have more of a following in the UK than in his own country, and I find this fascinating. If anyone can recommend a bio, please do. Again, I realize a lot of his work (okay, all of it) is terribly autobiographical, but I'd like to read the full-out other person's point of view on the man.

Graphic, 21 Apr 2008
This is one of the more graphic Bukowski novels and, at times, can get repetitive - but still his mixture of hatred and warmth makes it another highly readable novel.

Sorry Buko but a bit... boring, 26 Sep 2007
I popped my Bukowski cherry with Post Office and was enthralled, and my enchantment lasted through Ham on Rye, his short story collections, Pulp and some poetry collections. Most recently I read the excellent biography Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life. It's not like I am unfamiliar with the themes and style of Mr B is what I'm saying. But Women really turned me off. It's the emptiness I guess. Even in Post Office, even when he's at his lowest ebb, there's a vitality there which crackles and a tenderness, a human quality which is touching. That is absent in Women, and the drunk but interesting Chinaski is now the drunk but boring man you wish would go away and stop droning on. Same same same. Also the sheer amount of conquests is unbelievable. Maybe some women are drawn to fat ugly men with good legs, a jaded world view and serious drink problem. Even the lack of respect he habitually shows for most of these women is shallow and so unbelievable (though the women most of the time don't set themselves up for respect). It's like my uncle trying to be sexy and cool (no offence uncle m!) and failing miserably. There is no depth to any of it, no passion, no truth (and as a poet you need truth), no insight. I'm constantly reminded of a grumpy old man who wrinkles his nose at dirt and wishes to keep his hands clean - a trouser folder. This is especially true after reading the biography and accessing a clearer picture of the real Bukowski.

a total stunner, 23 Feb 2004
I came at Bukowski from the prose and im not a huge fan of poetry, in general. I do find, however, that on the rare occasion that poetry just grabs me, i find it wrenches and pulls in a way that great prose never can. This is one of the most engaging, raw, simplistic and poignant collections i have troubled to read. this is simply fantastic and also a proof of why Bukowski regarded his poetry as his finest, most relevant work and of why he enjoyed it so much more than his prose. The messages are succinct and unfettered and the piece entitled 'notice' contains so much grief and aggression and such a stark contrast between love and death, that i found it truly moving. This is something Bukowski never managed to achieve in his novels and short stories and i think it is a perfect example of the nature of his talents.

This is Bukowski's poetic masterpiece., 09 Jul 1999
This book is Bukowski's finest collection of poetry ever published. As with all prolific writers, Buk's books often come with more filler than sustenance- that is not the case here. The poems written for/about Jane highlight his most soulful collection. The usual mask of nonchalance has been stripped away, along with the chains of his self-created tough guy/barfly image. The tenderness and warmth are unfiltered by his masculine facade. Moving, desolate, and often humorous, this book is nearly flawless. It is written in such a way that anyone can read and understand. It isn't written in a flowery, deeply symbolic style that makes younger readers hate poetry. This book is from the heart, mind and fists of a man who has loved, suffered, hated and laughed. Anyone who has done likewise should be able to appreciate the raw beauty presented within. Make no mistake, the alcoholism, sex and madness that made Bukowski famous are all represented here as well. This is the book to read if you are interested in the most three-dimensional portrayal of the late poet.

Classic poems ripped straight from heaven and hell, 26 Mar 1999
This is a great collection. The "Jane" poems alone are worth the price of admission, but there is much, much more here for your consideration.

READ BUKOWSKI AND LIVE!

Well written but documenting the familiar, 20 Aug 2008
This was very easy to read and was well written but I can't understand all the praise.

As someone who has worked rubbish jobs, drunk too much and been hungover too often as well living in short term rented accommodation this didn't really tell me anything I didn't know and didn't give an insight into why people live like this. Good read but documenting the ordinary is never going to be extraordinary.

? a metaphor for human existence, 01 Aug 2008
what do you get from reading about Chinaski's paranoid and conscienceless approach to his pretty grim life? - well, for a start, your own impresses you as being worthwhile, you feel ( or decide to feel ) ok about yourself. you only vaguely know or know of someone like Chinaski. you don't exactly enjoy being a voyeur to his startling, brutally crude,constricted existence, but he will drag projections of various sorts out of most of you. why we read this is fascinating in itself. Maybe he is a metaphor for us being here 'just because we are'!

simple and brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Every Bukowski novel you are guaranteed to have a good time reading it and this one is no different. The simplicity of the writing allows his soul to shine through. I love easy reads that are also affecting and this is one of the finest examples.

"It began as a mistake", 22 Mar 2008
Bukowski's writing is honest and sometimes brutal. This was the first time I had read someone who I didn't feel was messing around with me, the reader. He didn't 'flower up' his work by being superfluous, rather, he was more direct and to the point than anyone I've ever read (and talked to). To say it was a refreshing change would be an understatement.

After finishing Post Office, I read Factotum, Ham on Rye, Women, and two of his early poetry books, and finished them all within weeks. I suspect, though, that as with any good book, I'll be revisiting them often.

Bukowski's writing always fills me with inspiration. His short, seemingly uncombed, sentences penetrate my brain like spears, flow off the tongue with ease, and never fail to leave something behind, long after I am done with the book. I admire his style, his honesty, his raw nature, and his unique approach when it comes to portraying life in its purest. He does not try to impress with elaborate sentence structure or flowery vocabulary, he does not try to romanticize life. His views, his images, his words...are all real; as real as it gets.

Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, is a man -- a simple, living, breathing man, playing whatever cards life had dealt him. He is a smoking, drinking, farting, gambling man struggling to maintain his head above water, while bound by the chains society ties him with. He is moving through life, seemingly with a certain nonchalance, yet suffering. Suffering from the all-too-human condition many of us know. For one, he is not attached enough to bleed when faced with a loss, yet, he is not completely detached to be indifferent when served a blow. And he is served plenty of blows.

Whoever put together this edition, decided to call it "one of the funniest books ever written" I disagree. Bukowski, and Henry Chinaski's "adventures" are humorous, but most of all, his stories are sad. Sad on the human level. While reading, we are bound to smile, laugh and grin, yet, below the surface, between the lines, is hidden human suffering. Suffering we can all relate to, whether dealing with an "impossible" life partner, or with the "evil" boss, we all have something in common with Chinaski. We may not drink as much, smoke as much, eat better, live in better conditions, but we can relate. And this is exactly what makes Bukowski as relevant today, as it did when the book was first published. It is the most precious of connections -- connecting with the author on a human level.

Along with Miller, Kerouac, and Raymond Carver, Bukowski remains one of my favorite authors; the sort of author I can go back to at any time and find his writing relevant and entertaining especially if i've had a few beers. If you never read Bukowski, get a beer, and give him a try. You won't be disappointed.

Regarding the incident where Chinaski the Postman apparently "rapes" a mentally unstable woman, it is quite funny. Lets just bear in mind that this is 'work of fiction'.

Excellent, 30 Dec 2007
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. Bukowski's grasp somewhat outstrips his reach; this is because his talent to describe a reality is so much more powerful than the material that he chooses to create that reality. Very few writers since Hemingway can set the scene and paint the stage with such remarkable economy of the written word. I see the main difference between a great writer and a good one (and Bukowski is a very good one)is the scope and breadth his material. But Hemingway's world was much larger while Bukowski binds himself too closely in his nutshell. He takes us into strange fields filled with enchanting flowers, only to describe, in breathtaking detail, a blade of grass. Bukowski's fearless approach to truth as a writer comes from (what one can only assume) is his relative poverty as a human being...however well he reveals to us in this novel the transcendental beauty of his blade of grass, we long to be able devour the scents and absorb the sunlight which we can only sense is just outside the writer's realm of experience!! I would also highly recommend reading Tino Georgiou's bestseller--The Fates--if you missed it!

Superb., 12 Sep 2008
After reading Ham On Rye, i HAD to read more of Bukowski.

I read another one of his books from the library, but I found that Ham On Rye was 100x better. I found I couldn't put Ham On Rye down once I started it.

Definately reccomended!

Is it me, or is it Bukowski?, 08 Aug 2008
The last time I read Bukowski was five years ago, when I was 21. Then, I read 'Post Office' and loved its raw energy, its 'don't give a f**k attitude'. I found him to be a fresh dose of realism in the face of the, what I then found, pretentious pomp of Kerouac.
I finally picked up 'Ham on Rye' after a recommendation from a friend, and was sorely disappointed. Yes, it's an easy read, and it's in no way bad, but it didn't seem to have any of the edginess or the zip that grabbed me in 'Post Office'. I'd heard that 'Ham on Rye' was Bukowski's masterpiece, and thus maybe my expectations were raised (whereas I went into 'Post Office' with little idea of who Bukowski was), and while it does take a different approach to his another novels, as this is a novel of childhood, a bildungsroman rather than a novel of despair, it really didn't offer me enough of anything to really make me love this book, or deem it worthy of five stars as so many others have on this page.
It's really a fast paced plod through the protagonist's (Chinaski's aka Bukowski's) childhood, from his beatings at the hand of his father, to his playground and later apartment brawls, via drinking games, sports matches, masturbation and attempts to catch site of some snatch.
The book, and character, finally begin to crack into adulthood at the end of the novel, which was where I began to see shades of tender brilliance shinging through, but by the time Chinaski 'turned around and walked out' at the end of the book, I was more than ready to do the same.
Would I have seen this book differently if I'd read it aged 21? Probably. This is little more than a memoir of adolescence, and while it is dedicated to 'all the fathers', I could have done with some more brooding on the father-son realtionship in this novel than Bukowski provides us with. If it contained more of this it would have been more of a tale of growing up through familial difficulties, rather than the diary of a drunken brawler that it turned out to be. Yes, this is perhaps what Bukowski was, but what artistic merit does his recounting of it really have?

MY FAV BUK BOOK!, 11 Jun 2008
Of all bukowski's books this is my favourite. Bukowski has some real jaw dropping, heart-warming thoughts throughout this book and I simply love it! AND it's hilarious!

If you like Bukowski check out the people who Bukowski loved: John Fante (Ask the Dust) Knut Hamsun (Hunger) Top class books!

Brilliant, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski does it again - with another book that is so easy to read yet about nothing in terms of conventional 'plot' and so funny and also so sad. I just wish I hadn't read all of his stuff so I could come across it for the first time again.

The Beginnings of Bukowski, 15 Feb 2008
Bukowski's formative years laid bare. No shirking from a fully detailed relation of his torment and tormentors. A writer unafraid to tell it like it is. Disarms all with frank statements and vivid recollection of mood, emotion, settings, names and places, his excellent memory is part revenge on all those that crossed him over the years. As always he manages to capture all those thoughts and feelings, that for most people are purposefully buried deep down beyond retrieval, expose them on the page with seemingly no effort, definitely no pretense and sign his name.

One of his best, 21 Apr 2008
Bukowski is perhaps an aquired taste - if you like simple books about almost nothing that are both funny and sad all at once then this one is for you.

Chinaski Tests Bottom, 05 Oct 2007
In FACTOTUM, Charles Bukowski follows his alter-ego Hank Chinaski through a sequence of 19 menial jobs. For each, Buk shows how Hank gets, experiences, and then loses a job, while the core activity in his life is really boozing.

Take, by the way, this description of FACTOTUM. Then, replace the subject of menial jobs with the subject of strangely worshipful women. What you get is a decent description of WOMEN, Buk's hilarious novel about the mature and successful Chinaski. For this reader, Bukowski's ability to write in such parallel structures is almost eerie.

In FACTOTUM, Bukowski presents the young Chinaski, who is just beginning to define himself as a writer and to gain some recognition for his work. In contrast, Chinaski is an established poet in WOMEN and pursued, to his incredulous delight, by attractive but crazy women, who feed his verse. While WOMEN is hilarious, the humor--in my opinion--isn't really there in FACTOTUM. Instead, this novel is a story about sly but self-destructive integrity, with the young Chinaski willing to live a very marginal existence, since this is the life that makes sense to him. I don't think Bukowski is writing with a message. Even so, young Hank is "just saying no" to work until he achieves the work that he wants.

Once again, Bukowski uses a very clear and direct style in this novel. In fact, I don't remember a single striking metaphor or simile in FACTOTUM. In a way, his writing is the opposite of his poetry (I'm reading THE ROOMING HOUSE MADRIGALS), with Bukowski seldom, if ever, pulling a wry or melancholy or thoughtful subtext out a short poetic narrative. Instead, the style in FACTOTUM is straightforward while the voice is consistently that of an alienated boozer who has "realized everything is a hoax" (page 61).

FACTOTUM is amusing but not hilarious. It is also occasionally grim, especially when Bukowski lets Hank test bottom and, oh, say, soil himself. This is an easy read and a good novel but not for the squeamish.


Grimly brilliant, brilliantly grim, 17 Nov 2005
This book is not uplifting. Bukowski pulls no punches in his description of a writer fighting for success, while fighting a losing battle against his own demons and apathy. Simply can't believe someone turned this into a film. Bukowski simply has to be read as a great American writer, shining a light on a part of America in the twentieth century that is not often looked at. His style is economical and fast paced, and you swiftly get drawn into a tale of characters doing really very little except messing up their lives. Don't read it when your down and alone.

chinaski as bandini, 17 Oct 2005
Factotum was the second of Buk's novels, falling between Post Office and Women. Post Office was all about Chinaski (the alter ego) finding writing out of the menial life of a post office worker. Factotum filled in Chinaski's 20s, the period when he really ran away and learned to rage, to fight and to drink. Arguably i would say that this is the classic depiction of Bukowski as the 'down-and-out' that everyone associates him as. Peculiarly (or perhaps not) there is a lot of resonance here with Fante's 'Road to Los Angeles' and the Arturo Bandini we see in that book. I think this is as close as Bukowski ever came to imitating the work of his hero and yet it must have been unkowingly achieved, because Factotum ended up being published first. Still, to me the two are sister novels.

Although i wouldn't rate Factotum as the finest piece of Bukowski (i think the short stories and poetry are where his genius lie) i think it is crucial to understanding and loving his outlook on the world; it sucks, so lets drink and fight our way through it.

Pick Up A Copy!, 28 Jul 2004
Just picked up Factotum by Bukowski, after reading The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Strange 'cause both books are somehow related. The connection? The drudgery of menial work! The dehumanizing affects of a life-wasting occupation is an underlying theme, mixed with accounts of failed relationships and an overall freefloating narrative structure. In Factotum, Buk recounts his mostly autobiographical adventures as a floating unemployed (and often unemployable) menial worker. He travels from state to state, writing and collecting rejection letters from magazines, and tries to deal with the unending humiliation of low-paying jobs and rat-trap apartments and fragile relationships. Often, he ends up hitting the bottle and, in bars, ends up meeting up with fellow drunks and losers and desperate ladies struggling to scrape by. There's humor here but also a lot of truth, some it stark and grim. One line that blew me away, gave me chills was: "Ain't no women on skid row." This was over Chinaski's anxiety regarding a female drinking companion. The style of the book is simple and easy and direct, and I found myself sucked into it right away. A child could read this book. I also read the whole book in one day, which for me is a first. Definitely pick up a copy of this novel. It's not as famous as his other novels, but as a memorable account/study of a "working stiff," worth owning, especially if you like Buk and his "down and out" view of life and appreciate his humor.

My favourite Buk book, 22 Oct 2008
"I was 50 years old and hadn't been to bed with a woman for four years. I had no women friends. I looked at them as i passed them on the streets or wherever i saw them, but i looked at them without yearning and with a sense of futility. The idea of having a relationship with a woman was beyond my imagination."

Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Bukowski aka Henry Chinaski writes about beer, cheap cigars, gambling and relationships with women.
"Women" is a semi-autobiographical novel that revolves around Henry Chinaski, a 50 yer old poet. Henry's finally beginning to experience some professional success, and he's milking it for all it's worth by indulging in alcohol; blowing his money at the track, and sleeping with as many women as he can get his nicotine stained hands on. I lost count of the number of women Henry screws in this book, but it's astronomically high, and every sexual encounter is described in very graphic detail "Steve McQueen would not have done better."

However, this isn't just a run-down of all the women Henry's been with. It's also an honest look at a life that's a lot less fulfilling than it may look on the outside, and an alcoholic man who's actually a pretty sad case.

I loved "Women". It comes straight from the heart. I love the author's writing style and Henry is a fantastic character, but he really doesn't seem to evolve much over the course of the novel, and things just got a bit monotonous towards the end as it is the longest Bukowski book printed.

PS. If you think Bukowski has no heart, no soul and is closed off to feelings of love/tenderness i recommend you read his poetry to see how wrong you are. 'One for old Snaggle-tooth' is a case in point.
Brendan Clarke.

But not for women..., 18 Jun 2008
I completely agree with the previous reviewer who said that this book has no heart and no tenderness. It is maybe the point that the narrator is repulsive and gross and treats women just like slabs of meat but it doesn't make for enjoyable reading, not to me, and the way the women behave is so untrue to life. You might get one woman like that, but not a whole string of them. And for a book about sex it's one hundred per cent unsexy. Our hero spends his life drinking and then vomiting. I just didn't see the point in writing, or reading a book like this. I honestly wouldn't bother. Sorry.

Don't have the heart to give it three stars, 31 May 2008
I know Bukowski fans are going to be upset with me, but I couldn't warm to this book, the same way I couldn't warm to TROPIC OF CANCER. It was just too raw and "down" for my taste. Still, I read it from cover to cover.

Bukowski's style is certainly unique and I have to admit I was drawn in, but some of the terms and descriptions were too much for me. Perhaps I was expecting more a "Hunter Thompson" type of book, with an edge but also some dash of flippancy. True, there is humour in WOMEN, but it was just a bit too edgy for my taste---and I've read NAKED LUNCH!

What I find infinitely more fascinating than Bukowski's books, is the man himself, though I realize you can't really separate the two of them. The man seems to actually have more of a following in the UK than in his own country, and I find this fascinating. If anyone can recommend a bio, please do. Again, I realize a lot of his work (okay, all of it) is terribly autobiographical, but I'd like to read the full-out other person's point of view on the man.

Graphic, 21 Apr 2008
This is one of the more graphic Bukowski novels and, at times, can get repetitive - but still his mixture of hatred and warmth makes it another highly readable novel.

Sorry Buko but a bit... boring, 26 Sep 2007
I popped my Bukowski cherry with Post Office and was enthralled, and my enchantment lasted through Ham on Rye, his short story collections, Pulp and some poetry collections. Most recently I read the excellent biography Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life. It's not like I am unfamiliar with the themes and style of Mr B is what I'm saying. But Women really turned me off. It's the emptiness I guess. Even in Post Office, even when he's at his lowest ebb, there's a vitality there which crackles and a tenderness, a human quality which is touching. That is absent in Women, and the drunk but interesting Chinaski is now the drunk but boring man you wish would go away and stop droning on. Same same same. Also the sheer amount of conquests is unbelievable. Maybe some women are drawn to fat ugly men with good legs, a jaded world view and serious drink problem. Even the lack of respect he habitually shows for most of these women is shallow and so unbelievable (though the women most of the time don't set themselves up for respect). It's like my uncle trying to be sexy and cool (no offence uncle m!) and failing miserably. There is no depth to any of it, no passion, no truth (and as a poet you need truth), no insight. I'm constantly reminded of a grumpy old man who wrinkles his nose at dirt and wishes to keep his hands clean - a trouser folder. This is especially true after reading the biography and accessing a clearer picture of the real Bukowski.

a total stunner, 23 Feb 2004
I came at Bukowski from the prose and im not a huge fan of poetry, in general. I do find, however, that on the rare occasion that poetry just grabs me, i find it wrenches and pulls in a way that great prose never can. This is one of the most engaging, raw, simplistic and poignant collections i have troubled to read. this is simply fantastic and also a proof of why Bukowski regarded his poetry as his finest, most relevant work and of why he enjoyed it so much more than his prose. The messages are succinct and unfettered and the piece entitled 'notice' contains so much grief and aggression and such a stark contrast between love and death, that i found it truly moving. This is something Bukowski never managed to achieve in his novels and short stories and i think it is a perfect example of the nature of his talents.

This is Bukowski's poetic masterpiece., 09 Jul 1999
This book is Bukowski's finest collection of poetry ever published. As with all prolific writers, Buk's books often come with more filler than sustenance- that is not the case here. The poems written for/about Jane highlight his most soulful collection. The usual mask of nonchalance has been stripped away, along with the chains of his self-created tough guy/barfly image. The tenderness and warmth are unfiltered by his masculine facade. Moving, desolate, and often humorous, this book is nearly flawless. It is written in such a way that anyone can read and understand. It isn't written in a flowery, deeply symbolic style that makes younger readers hate poetry. This book is from the heart, mind and fists of a man who has loved, suffered, hated and laughed. Anyone who has done likewise should be able to appreciate the raw beauty presented within. Make no mistake, the alcoholism, sex and madness that made Bukowski famous are all represented here as well. This is the book to read if you are interested in the most three-dimensional portrayal of the late poet.

Classic poems ripped straight from heaven and hell, 26 Mar 1999
This is a great collection. The "Jane" poems alone are worth the price of admission, but there is much, much more here for your consideration.

READ BUKOWSKI AND LIVE!

Bukowski = my favourite writer, 03 Jul 2008
Charles Bukowski is my favourite writer but here in this collection of short stories he seems to have lost the plot. I may run contrary to the other reviewers here, but I really didn't like Tales of Ordinary Madness. The book, first of all, doesn't even read like a Bukowski book. The writing style is totally different from any of the novels (all excellent) or short story books, especially Hot Water Music and South of No North.

Bukowski apparently wrote these stories for an American magazine when he was famous. The stories are terrible. They don't make any sense. Things happen in the book and you're not sure what's going on. The plots have no sort of logical flow to them and are pointless drivel. Completely disjointed - and not the stories to each other, but within each story. How in the world did collection of stories ever get to be published?

The book is explicit in its content, and for those that find subjects about filthy drunks, gambling, boozing, offensive sexual details, and nonstandard behaviour, do not read this book. The stories are obviously autobiographical since every Bukowski fan knows he was a drunk and lived in filthy transient hotels for most of his life. His auto-fiction stories are crude and unsavory.

Tales of Ordinary Madness is not a good book; it is full of poetry and short stories about people that were erratic, and rejected by society because of the way they lived. Is it because these characters were mad, or is it because that was their natural course in life? Well, that has to be interpreted by the reader. Through his writing he allows you to get into the subhuman scenario of the people that he chose to surround himself with, you can feel it. Bukowski made it clear through his prose that he was a non-believer of what society dictated he was a radical. Bukowski was a great writer, however he did contradict himself by professing to hate poets although he was one himself. He never wanted to fit into any role in society although he ended-up doing so.



the best collection, 20 Oct 2005
I have read (as far as I know) all of Bukowski's stuff. I love a few of the poems but a lot of them drift over me. It is with the stories that he has won me over. All the novels (especially Post Office and Ham on Rye) are wonderful, but his writing is best suited to short stories (and I would say the novels Factotum and Women, great as they are, are basically a novelised series of short stories...) The best collections of short stories are The Most Beautiful Woman In Town and this one, with this one the more consistent. There are examples of the short story in this book that I firmly believe could not be bettered, enough to make you put the book down for a minute, just to think about what you've read, and just marvel at the sheer word-economical perfection, and how his incredible turn of phrase can sum up inner thoughts and philosophies with a paucity of words. As long as you're not easily offended, there is plenty here to blow you away.

Anything but Ordinary, 03 Oct 2000
In TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS Charles Bukowski does what very few can. He finds the poetry in real people who live miserable lives in miserable conditions, mostly by their own doing. There is very little to recommend in these characters. Like Bukowski, most of them are unemployed drunks, dirty old men, sexual degenerates, and morally stripped souls. They form a subculture that perpetuates and sustains itself as long as the liquor keeps flowing (and it does), the women keep giving (and they do ... and do), and the men continue indulging (and they do ... and do ... and do). And yet, the reader is transfixed. For better or worse (usually worse), the reader c