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They wouldn't fire me. Even the salesmen liked me. They were robbing the boss out the back door but I didn't say anything. That was their little game. It didn't interest me. I wasn't much of a petty thief. I wanted the whole world or nothing.
I used to wonder when would I turn into an adult. The answer is a lot less philosophical than what you would expect: when you leave school and other people stop being responsible for you. That's it. Most of life stops being sexy or magical at that point, but there is a silver lining to it. There is a side of life you learn to appreciate: survival of the soul. The defiance of dreams and artistic longing against the cold, hard reality. In that regards, the prose of Charles Bukowski is very much a product of its era. POST OFFICE was my first real foray into the work of the iconic American writer and it made it quite clear why Bukowski is such a revered figure by his peers.
The premise of POST OFFICE is that it's a barely fictionalized account of Charles Bukowski's working years in the postal service. His infamous on-the-page alter ego Henry Chinasky became a mailman almost by mistake. The job isn't fun and the supervisor is an idiot, but it's a straightforward way to make money so he is reluctant to let it go. Chinasky is lazy, though and he eventually quits. Only problem is that the job doesn't quit on him. In a world where the employment market is fundamentally broken, it's difficult to get away from a job in which you have experience. POST OFFICE is the story of the lazy, shoegazing Henry Chinasky trying not to be a postal service employee while working as a postal service employee. It's the best way I can describe it and it embodies the problematic relationship Occidental people have with their job.
POST OFFICE is a fundamental work of American fiction. I understand it's a huge statement to make, but it's as clear as day when you read it. Charles Bukowski influenced several authors that came after him and I'm thinking big names such as Chuck Palahniuk. To my knowledge, he is the first author to write in such a colloquial voice, to write with the simplicity and the rawness one of your friends would have when he has a funny work story to tell you. I haven't read Bukowski's poety, but I didn't see much poetry in the prose of POST OFFICE. I saw raw, unfiltered experience and insight and a prose so translucid, it made itself forgotten at times. How do you go from a novel like POST OFFICE to writing poetry? I have no idea, but I have the deepest respect for Charles Bukowski for having the ability and the artistic vision to do this.
Old Ladies standing in halls, up and down the streets, asking the same question as if they were one person with one voice:
''Mailman, you got any mail for me?''
And you felt like screaming, ''Lady, how the hell do I know who you are or I am or anybody is?''
It's safe to say you won't go beyong the prose of POST OFFICE if you haven't worked a hopeless job in your life. Not a student job with an expiring date on it, but a real job that plans no future whatsoever for you. But I did and I saw the beauty in Henry Chinasky's small-time but spirited rebellion against the system. I'm sure several other people did. Major employers such as the government ask you to take pride in your job, but it takes no pride in you. You're just a body filling a shirt, filling a role. They would hire monkeys to do this job if they could, hell, they automatize systems and fire people nowadays. POST OFFICE shows through Henry Chinasky and especially though the cast of sad, droopy-eyed postal service employees, that it's of the utmost importance not to become your job.
POST OFFICE is a novel with a dual nature. There are two Henry Chinaskys: one who works for the postal service and one who's boozing it up. Honestly, I thought Chinasky was a lot more interesting when he had to fight off the mind-numbing tasks of his abhorred day job. Not that boozing it up is not interesting, but it's been done so much since then that it lost some of the initial impact Charles Bukowski intended for his transgression. POST OFFICE is a novel of survival in the age of meaninglessness. It had an immense influence on a generation of lonely young people searching for meaning somewhere beyond their next pay check. It's been imitated, it's been ripped off, but it has an energy and wits that will never be challenged. It's an important work to understand the legacy of Charles Bukowski on American letters.