This is the 60s and 70s, but I still think even by those standards Bukowski pushes the limit. lowlife.” He regularly refers to women as "good solid meat", "shackjob", "tits" or "ass" - or worse. I wonder for how long a progressive city like Los Angeles will celebrates him as the "poet laureate of L.A. Bukowski is an unashamed, unpretentious writer, shifting the rules of poetry to "natural language." He is unafraid to swear and offend, and his writing flows like a mind with no filter.īukowski's writing is crude, unromantic, irreverent - and misogynist. Bukowski is quoted as saying, "This is where the people are." And his writing is for them. Ethnically diverse, ordinary, middle class. The apartment complex is named Bukowski Court, and is now a cultural monument. I stand holding my copy of Post Office in front of the very room where it was written, and feel something close to visiting a grave. This is the "rat hole" apartment that Bukowski lived in from 1964 to 1973, the place he wrote his first six novels. I next reenact Bukowski's daily commute, and travel to his apartment at 5124 De Longpre Avenue.
Free burial." Standing there, I can almost believe it. But Chinaski thinks he'd be better off in jail, "Three squares and no rent to pay, no utilities, no income tax, no child support. The job was sold on security: government benefits for life. I watch as customers come and go, and can imagine the "insane and dull people" driving Chinaski mad, repeating "the same things over and over again." I picture Chinaski "all hunched-up on a stool," servicing patrons like a revolving door. You get the sense that the only way to survive is to bullshit. The text's humorous contrasting of an officious title with a boring, insignificant role is visible in this location and the people working inside of it. A clerk jokes apathetically about his role as a federal government employee. Inside, I can smell the bureaucratic stink and cruelty of the job. I start my Bookpacking journey at the location where his story begins. This is where Bukowski (and his fictional alter ego Henry Chinaski) wastes 12 years of his life carrying and sorting mail. I'm in Downtown Los Angeles at the United States Post Office Terminal Annex.
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