Gail Chiarrello Books

Henry Chinaski, an outcast, a loner and a hopeless dunk, drifts around America form one dead-end job to another, from one woman to another and from one bottle to the next. Uncompromising, gritty, hilarious and confessional in turn, his downward spiral is peppered with black humour. Factotum follows Charles Bukowski's bestselling Post Office, his highly autobiographical first novel. Bukowski's Beat Generation writing reflects his slum upbringing, his succession of menial jobs and his experience of low life urban America. He died in 1994 and is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinctive writers of the last fifty years.

Revolving around themes of alcoholism, gambling, sex, and violence, this short story collection demonstrates Bukowski's compelling semi-autobiographical style and mastery of visceral language and depiction of seamy underworlds.Bukowski's writings have addicted legions of American readers, even though the high literary establishment continues to ignore them. In Europe, however (particularly in Germany, Italy, and France, where he is published by the great publishing houses), Bukowski is critically recognized as one of America's greatest realist writers.