Charles Bukowski’s "Stories of Ordinary Madness," Summary

This book is an unvarnished slice of marginal life in Los Angeles, growing out of a weekly newspaper column for the underground publication "Open City." It centers on a marginalized person balancing heavy drinking, grueling physical labor, and an irresistible urge to type. This collection of short stories was published as a separate book in 1972 under the author’s own title, and was reissued as a standalone volume in 1983.

In 1981, Italian director Marco Ferreri made a feature film of the same name based on the stories, starring Ben Gazzara.

Prisons, vagrancy and factory labor

A robber named Duke goes grocery shopping with his four-year-old daughter, Lala. With childish innocence, the girl loads avocados, a toy gun, and expensive delicacies into her cart. At home, his wife, Meg, unsuccessfully pleads with him to abandon the night’s errand. Duke pulls out a.45 caliber pistol. Near a liquor store on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard, the man is overcome by a sense of foreboding. A car whisks him away into the night.

In 1942, FBI agents arrest the author in a rented room for failing to report to the recruiting office. Moyamensing State Penitentiary greets the newcomer with dank vaults and swarms of bedbugs. Cellmate Courtney Taylor teaches him how to survive behind bars. Days are spent gambling at dice and enjoying late-night meals from a convict cook. A psychiatrist declares the prisoner unfit for the army. Freedom returns suddenly.

Cleaning up pigeon droppings becomes a daily punishment for newcomers to the prison yard. Inmate Blaine uses a razor to cut off the legs of a captured bird to intimidate the entire flock. Another inmate, the ferocious Sears, openly promises to kill young Ned Lincoln. The next morning, Sears cold-bloodedly stabs his victim to death in the shower with a homemade shank. The defiant Joe Stutz spends years in solitary confinement and throws a bucket of sewage in the warden’s face.

Dan Skorsky leaves a tough shift at a rubber factory. A letter from New York promises an editorial position at a reputable publishing house, for which he immediately flies. Instead of working in a glass cubicle, the newcomer spends his days drinking at a nearby bar. After being fired, he leaves for Tijuana, Mexico. Dancing in a cantina gives way to waking up penniless on a stone bench.

A chance job as a track repairman turns into a grueling journey across Texas in a stuffy train car among embittered people who constantly steal other people’s belongings, starve over cans without openers, and run away at the stops. In Los Angeles, a penniless trackman spends the night in an abandoned Cadillac. Early in the morning, a boy with a baseball bat brutally beats the tramp to the head and body.

Poetry readings and bohemian squabbles

Poet Henry Chinaski flies to Seattle for a university poetry reading. Student Belford patronizes his guest as he guzzles whiskey from a thermos in front of the cameras. The audience erupts in applause. A party at the home of a literature professor ends with him drunkenly kissing someone else’s wife in a dark kitchen.

Roy’s friend’s wedding takes place in the luxurious mansion of the wealthy Harvey, under the guidance of an Eastern teacher. Bukowski dons a tie and presents the couple with a miniature, handcrafted Spanish coffin. The relatives reject the strange gift. On the spiral staircase in the garden, a drunken best man demands the Zen teacher’s ears and falls into the cacti. A city patrol detains a troublemaker on the sidewalk near his own home.

Summer heat in Tucson soars above 105 degrees. A trip to the University of Arizona’s country arts center boils down to 24-hour drinking of canned beer in a stuffy cottage, endless calls from the local literary editor, and tiring walks through scorching neighborhoods with a bottle of peach brandy in hand. The overnight train ride back to Los Angeles brings welcome relief.

At the grocery store, the author is accosted by an annoying acquaintance who talks about American poetry. The guest begs the cashier to let the genius have his groceries for free. A young Jewish man, Maxie, comes in for a beer and discusses the inevitability of the coming revolution. In the living room, Willie and Dutch argue about the poetry of Robert Lowell and the Canadian poet Al Purdy. A bout of flu forces the writer to hide under a blanket from the crowd of self-satisfied guests.

Racetrack betting, hangovers and women

Jack Hendley spends his evenings in the racetrack stands, trying to beat the betting odds. Pickpockets and beggars scurry through the crowd. Old experience suggests the right bets. Haste and nervousness lead to a series of disappointing defeats. Only an unexpected triumph by a gelding named Rigging brings the gambler two hundred and thirty-six dollars. A winning race brings poverty back.

Heavy thoughts return the narrator to the Olympic Hall of his distant youth. In the boxing ring, the young Mexican, Balanos, crushes the black veteran, Watson Jones. The beloved fighter falls to the mat. A disappointed witness to the fight returns with his friend Jane to the cold room, listening to the sound of raindrops pattering on the glass.

Harry returns from the hospital to his rented apartment with his hard-drinking partner, Madge. He’s broke, and the front end of his car is smashed. A clever conversation with a mechanic at the garage gets him the car back for a symbolic five dollars. At the store, he manages to borrow a six-pack of beer. A row over old scores escalates into a passionate encounter in the bedroom.

The pursuit of a striking red-haired woman leads the hero to the Hudson Arms. Vera lets him into the apartment and readily consents to sex. An hour later, the landlady calls the police. The charges fall apart due to lack of evidence. The released prisoner leaves the station and immediately rushes to another neighbor.

Crazy Jimmy shows up for a visit wearing a ridiculous Panama hat and carrying a bag of stolen silverware. The host walks barefoot across a carpet strewn with broken beer bottles. Sculptor Arthur is creating enormous cement statues of ancient athletes in the yard. The narrator accidentally knocks over a statue in the dark and hides the broken, sixty-centimeter-long chunk of concrete in the homeowner’s mailbox.

Ghosts of loneliness and the madness of the big city

Frank Evans sees evil spirits at work in the traffic and neon signs. A cheap hotel clerk hands a guest a block of cheese and persistently solicits sex in his room. A sudden fit of rage drives the guest to commit a brutal attack with a penknife. After sending a letter to his mother about his imminent move north, the killer hastily packs his suitcase.

Sixty-year-old Sneed sits on a deserted beach with change in his pocket. Young people on the sand laugh loudly at the old man. In the darkness of his rented room, the poor man quietly pours a cup of chicken soup out the window and falls asleep forever to the sound of the ocean.

A psychiatric clinic offers its patients the illusion of freedom. Bukowski sells tranquilizers to the patients and retreats to the barnyard with his friend Mary, surrounded by hay. A group of orderlies interrupts the love scene. The head doctor deprives the troublemaker of daytime exercise privileges.

Gordon finds refuge on a country farm with a strange woman named Carol. She shares her home with wolves, tigers, and monkeys, raising a new generation of creatures. Neighbors shoot the animals while their owners are out shopping. The maternity ward is filled with the sound of the first hydrogen bomb exploding.

Nightmares fill a lonely man with terror of his own bedspread. The fabric feels like a living predator, crawling toward his throat in the darkness. Neighbor Mick fires a bullet from a.32 caliber revolver into the fabric. Panicked, the owner shreds the material with a kitchen knife and burns the scraps in a basin.