Henry Chinaski grows up in Los Angeles in the 1930s with a father who beats him and a mother who looks away. His face is wrecked by severe acne, he is excluded at school, and he finds comfort in books and alcohol. As he moves from high school to the Depression and the brink of the Second World War, he drifts through bad jobs and bar fights, and he starts to write. Charles Bukowski draws on his own youth, in a deadpan style that makes the misery oddly funny and the narrator's refusal of sentiment very clear.
It is a good choice for those who like autobiographical fiction and gritty American stories. It works as a stand-alone, though it fits with his other Chinaski books.
Inward-looking and thought-provoking; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1982
- Language
- EN
