Post Office was written by Charles Bukowski in 1971. It was his first novel. As with Ham on Rye and Factotum, the story is somewhat autobiographical. The Bukowski-style cynicism and vulgarity is just as present in this novel as it is in the rest. It is quite hilarious and the reader will often find him-herself smiling with the occasional laugh out loud while reading it.
The story is about the ever cynical-alcoholic anti-hero Henry Chinaski–Bukowski’s alter ego–and his time working for the United States Postal Service. He starts off as a substitute mail carrier. He describes–quite hilariously–the everyday struggle of being a substitute postman who is exposed to the annoying public, the difficult weather conditions, and the condescending unscrupulous supervisors. He then quits and starts making money on horse races. He then meets a “small town” girl named Joyce whose parents and grandparents are quite rich. In an effort to prove self-sufficiency, she pushes Henry to get a job and this lands him right back in the Postal Service, this time as a clerk. The challenges of being a clerk are even more arduous than that of being a substitute mail carrier. He ends up divorcing Joyce and gets back with Betty, his Ex Girlfriend. Eventually, she passes away, becoming the third close person in two years to do so(his mother and father were the other two). After working at the post office for a eleven years, he finally decides to quit as he feels it was slowly killing him.
The book is quite easy to read since Bukowski’s short sentence/small chapter style makes it a hard one to put down. It is very funny and extremely well written.
