Bukowski

I am going to talk to you about another highly immoral book... Two immoral books actually, although one is perhaps less immoral than the other. Let's say two books, then, by the same immoral author, Charles Bukowski. He isn't only a novelist, he's a poet, too. I don't know much about his poems, but his novels, anyway, are semi-autobiographical. I will talk to you about two of his novels, both of which I have in my library. The first one is Ham on Rye and it features Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter ego. Ham on Rye tells the story of Henry Chinaski's childhood, which takes place in the Great Depression. Chinaski comes from a poor family, and his childhood is very rough. I found some passages of the book to kind of violent, especially since they feature a young child. The book basically tells us the desperate story of this kid who will grow up to become the very immoral man featured in the second book I will talk to you about, Women.

Women does not take place immediately after Ham on Rye. Some of Bukowski's other works complete the time gap existing between Ham on Rye and Women. By the time Women takes place, Henry Chinaski has become fairly old. He is now a semi-renowned poet and gives public hearings. He is always drunk. At the beginning of the book, Chinaski hasn't had a woman in a long time. However, he meets a crazy woman who will become a big part of his life and not long after that, he realizes that he is attractive to many women because of his reputation. He then spends his time cheating on his girlfriend, getting drunk, and writing. 

There are no moral endings to these books. As you can guess, I found Women to be particularly immoral. It is the perfect book to boost a guy's ego. Its lesson is that if you write, you can still get fucked even if you're old and ugly. These books are sometimes funny, but essentially the main thing you get from them is a very easy read. 

If you're wondering, I haven't given up on the idea of giving my posts song names. There really is a song called "Bukowski": it's a Modest Mouse song. All right, I'm giving away the answer, but no one is really playing my game anyway.