i read a book

I have joined a pseudo-book-club-type-thing started by Joy at freckletree (map to her at stage left or is stage left really meaning your right? i forget). I read Post Office by Charles Bukowski and I'm trying to decide how I feel about it so that I can join in with some intelligent discussion.

Lets see... I liked that it was short. I was able to read it quickly in my limited free time and therefore felt a sense of accomplishment and relatively immediate gratification.

The book is about a loser, Henry Chinaski, that has two terms with the post office in the duration of his wasteful existence, hence the title. He drinks, smokes, sleeps around and says "stick it to the man" with his careless attitude. That's basically all the book has to offer. No real moral to the story and no warm fuzzy feeling. If you dig REALLY deep you can see that the character has the ability to not be a total chauvinistic, sado-masochistic a**hole, but looking that hard made my head hurt. And I don't really feel the character is worth that much thought. Instead I live vicariously when he tells the boss to shove it and I smile. I enjoy the warmth of my home more when I read about the dumps he lives in and the sad relationships he has with various floozies.

Henry is a character. And he gets right to the point with his dialogue and actions. No bs. I guess I found an admirable quality in him after all.

And as much as I dislike him as a person I would probably pick up another tale about him. So, he's a loser and I am a hypocrite.