Reviews

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

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bexlrose's review

3.0

Well, I certainly got it more than I did when I first tried to read it at 21. But it's still depressing as hell. The difference now is that it's ok because I definitely didn't turn into him.

Really makes you appreciate your job too, I'll give it that. Anyone who thinks they've got it bad at work should read this for a little perspective.

Still only an average book though in my opinion. 2.5 stars. 3 if I'm feeling generous. Which i'm not. No-one would be after reading it, it's too utterly depressing.

bookedwithjade's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

kpanagod's review

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1.0

Wtf. Genuinely the most unlikeable, detestable, awful main character I’ve ever had the displeasure of encountering in a novel. But an unlikable main character doesn’t automatically make a book bad, so I’m gonna word vomit to try to understand why I disliked this.

I don’t know what to think about this book because I don’t know what Bukowski’s goal was. Was he trying to show a working man’s deterioration? Because the character was pretty horrible from the beginning. ^SPOILER and TW for chapter 14 but he literally encounters a woman on his postal route who is afraid of him bc she is “crazy” and keeps screaming about how she’s afraid she’s gonna get r*ped and then, after unsuccessfully trying to convince her that he’s just there to deliver the mail what does he do? He decides to r*pe her to shut her up. What the fuck. That image stuck in my mind for the rest of the novel and will probably linger for a while.

In terms of writing, the humor was stale and the depictions of women were clearly derogatory. Obviously the latter is because the main character was horrible but I think he was supposed to come out looking like a hero at the end? I’m not sure if that was the intention but everything seemed to work out for him at the end and he didn’t change at all.

It doesn’t seem like Bukowski was criticizing his shitty character, it seems more like he was trying hard to depict an image of “the average working man” but if that’s how the average man truly was, the world would be pretty bleak (especially for women).

izzy222x's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

lauraborkpower's review

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2.0

It was okay for what it was: the diary of a sexed up drunk. I'm a plot person, though, and this was pretty light in that department. The lack of contractions in the dialogue made it read as oddly formal, and felt false. I might give another of his novels a try, though not right away, and in the end I'll probably stick with his poetry. But now I have to figure out what to tell my student--who loves this book and loaned it to me--what I thought of it. Yikes.