by Charles Bukowski
1971 (reprinted 2009) • Virgin Books
176 pages / ISBN 9780753518168 (paperback)
The United States Postal Service offers a list of well-known individuals who have worked for the agency at some point in their lives. You will find Charles Bukowski amongst the distinguished names, having given his energy to the U.S. mails for some 15 years.
While it is highly possible that the USPS public relations staff have read Bukowski's work, I tend to doubt they've ever read Post Office, the first novel of his famous (and infamous) literary career. The vitriolic novel, first published by Black Sparrow Press in 1971, has kept its reputation as a landmark of Dirty Realism and an effective putdown of American workplaces, bureaucracies, and social institutions.If you want a clear picture of Bukowski, you should forget a content soul in post office garb and imagine a pockmarked, middle-aged man sitting at his rusty typewriter with a cigarette, beer, and justifiable grudge against humanity. Born in Germany and brought to Los Angeles by parents who mentally crushed him, Bukowski was destined never to fit into regular society. His early years were marred by an abusive father, self-consciousness over his German accent, embarrassment from severe acne (he attended his high school prom with toilet paper covering his face), and an ever-growing hatred of the societal power structure.
Though published on occasion, most of Bukowski's early attempts at writing failed and he became a drifter after the Second World War. A dropout from Los Angeles City College, he worked at menial jobs, drank heavily, and lived in flophouses before 'settling' into employment with the postal network. He would experience two stints for the U.S. Postal Service - first as a carrier, then as a clerk - before receiving financial support from publisher John Martin that allowed him to write full-time.
Post Office was written after years of delivering and sorting letters, a career that paralleled Bukowski's life as a writer, boozer, horse player, and womanizer. In all four cases, Bukowski couldn't quite help himself and the social forces that engulfed him wouldn't allow it to stop. Written largely from first-hand experiences, Post Office gives an honest and mostly unflattering view of the Los Angeles working class that Bukowski knew intimately.
In a novel filled with sex, arguments at work, arguments at home, a robbery attempt, stampeding buffalo in Texas, and assorted bad behavior, Bukowski converts his own life into the form of Henry Chinaski, an unmarried L.A. native who doesn't buy into the steady grind of work and family. Thinking he is about to make easy money, Chinaski becomes a post office temp during the Christmas season and, afterwards, a 'substitute' carrier for all times of the year.
Post Office is divided into six chapters, each composed of short episodes that happen over a 17 or 18-year period. The plot can be loosely broken into three timeframes based upon Chinaski's employment: his first stint of three years as a letter carrier, two years in which he tries to earn his living at the betting windows of racetracks, and another 12 years as a clerk whose job is to route letters from the main stations at night. The episodes alternate between Chinaski's private life and his workplace experiences, both of which have erratic (and often funny) results.
Bukowski writes as a minimalist, keeping sentences brief and offering exterior details only to advance the story. While using casual language, his storytelling is very deliberate in approach. The novel makes no secret of what it's trying to accomplish in presenting a working man's story that members of his social stratum can relate to.
Post Office is at its most effective when taking us into the lives of people who staff the Post Office and other massive organizations. As Chinaski works long and grueling hours, we witness the bizarre operations of the USPS (called the Post Office Department until 1971), complete with half-cocked supervisors, clerks on the verge of a mental breakdown, and men who are due for retirement but limping across the finish line. The Post Office is depicted as a gargantuan system in which employees are judged by output and little else.
As one would expect, Bukowski's prose is just as rude, crude, and crass as his poetry. He holds no shame in describing his sexual experiences, uses dirty language, and pulls no punches in discussions of what's wrong with himself and others. The novel has a sarcastic tone that indicates Chinaski has faced mankind's stupidity one time too many. This aggressiveness, this sheer exasperation, lowers Bukowski to an average person's level - our level - and we tend to love him for it.
The novel is sardonic, but Bukowski was a human and the novel is not without humanity at key points. While despising his job, Chinaski is also a keen observer of his colleagues and has sympathy for the men and women who are going to pieces after cowering before their bosses for decades. He also must bear witness to the lonely death of Betty, a former lover whom he meets up with and finds in the last throes of alcoholism and rapid aging. A rare happy moment in his life comes from the arrival of a daughter through his later girlfriend Fay.
Post Office is a very quick read, lasting 160 pages. The plot actually becomes repetitive in the last few sections, probably since Bukowski was running out of material to keep things going. Luckily, he draws matters to a close without overextending them. And he ends the story in a typically Bukowskian way: with Chinaski going on a booze and sex spree after quitting his job.
Those who are easily offended will dislike everything about Bukowski: his subject matter, his style, and his real-life behavior. Novels of this type are an acquired taste, but those who are at all interested in the legacy of Dirty Realism and the American counterculture should not hesitate to read Post Office. The book has enjoyed repeated printings and been translated into several languages, so it will not be hard to find.
Editions currently available include a 2009 softcover printing by Virgin Books in the UK. The Virgin edition, at 176 total pages, offers a quirky introduction by writer Niall Griffiths. Griffiths, an author of such books as Runt and Ten Pound Pom, was himself an employee of the Royal Mail and draws connections between Bukowski's novel and his own experiences in the British postal trade. The book also has stylish, if drab, cover art and uses a large, easy-to-read typeface.
The USPS, meanwhile, should get a copy and find out who they're including on that list of theirs.
