Charles Bukowski’s "Post Office" Summary

The text was written in just three weeks, immediately after the author’s final departure from the postal service to pursue professional writing. The book opens a series of works about the alter ego of a writer named Henry Chinaski. This series also includes "Factotum," "Women," "Ham on Rye," and "Hollywood." The novel was published in 1971.

Delivery service at the Oakford branch

A casual Christmas job leads Henry Chinaski to join the Los Angeles Postal Corps of Freelancers. Branch Manager Oakford, Johnston, wears maroon shirts and imposes a barracks-like regime. Freelancers arrive at five in the morning. They are assigned the most neglected areas of the sick regular employees. Chinaski is assigned route number 539, with its faded signs, steep hills, and ferocious guard dogs.

The boss delays the morning mail delivery, demanding that it be finished by eight o’clock sharp. Chinaski sends a thirty-page complaint to headquarters. A gray-haired, ashen-eyed bureaucrat immediately defends the despot. The administration leaves the recalcitrant deliveryman without daily assignments for a whole week. An evening express delivery service at the neighboring Preli branch comes to the rescue.

Difficulties beset the newcomer at every turn. A search for a recipient in a Catholic church ends with the drinking of sacramental wine and a rest in the basement. The boss’s favorite, Matthew Betlis, is caught red-handed opening envelopes containing donations for the pompous green church of the self-proclaimed preacher Nikalaila. Veteran postman George Green, nicknamed JJ, has been handing out lollipops to children for years, accompanied by a loud whistle. A sudden influx of supermarket brochures drives an elderly veteran to a nervous breakdown in the coat check.

The city is engulfed by torrential rains. The sewers are choked by half-meter-deep streams of rainwater. The old company truck finally stalls in the middle of the flooded street. Chinaski abandons the car in the floodwaters and makes his way to the garage by swimming and walking.

Three years later, he receives a permanent promotion with paid leave. Management issues a strict ban on leaving uniform caps on the sorting tables. Henry demonstratively places his hat on his work box for three mornings in a row. The supervisor methodically types out official reprimands on a typewriter. Chinaski tosses the papers in the trash can and submits his resignation.

Marriage to Joyce and a trip to Texas

Free days are spent in the grandstands at the racetrack. Chinaski consistently wins between fifteen and forty dollars a day. His common-law wife, Betty, gets a job as a typist and begins to accuse her partner of idleness. A sudden scandal destroys their life together. Henry leaves the house to his girlfriend.

A chance encounter with a young blonde, Joyce, leads to a quick wedding in Las Vegas. The couple travels to a small Texas town to visit the bride’s wealthy relatives. A local dwarf takes his guest on a tour of the family estate. Wally’s grandfather lures his son-in-law to a distant pasture and sets three bison on them. Chinaski escapes the enraged herd by leaping over a high fence into a roadside ditch.

For the local Blue Cotton festival, everyone wears work jeans. Chinaski parades through the streets in a formal three-piece suit and tie, smoking a cigar. The family leaves Texas in a car given to them by their grandfather. Joyce demands a job to save her reputation. She briefly works as a shipping clerk at Freddy Chinaski’s art supply store.

Sorting shop and night schemes

A chance conversation with a familiar bar regular prompts Henry to reapply to the post office. The form confirms his selection for the position of internal clerk. A crowd of two hundred recruits gathers for the swearing-in. Instructors promise the new recruits lifelong stability and comfortable security.

Night shifts last twelve hours. Employees sit on high stools with tiny round cushions under the watchful eye of overseers. Talking and bathroom breaks are prohibited. At home, the Chinaskis are greeted by swarms of flies in the courtyard, a goofy puppy named Picasso, and falling geranium flowerpots.

The service requires memorizing complex patterns for distributing letters across city zones, so Henry invents his own mnemonic with erotic imagery and successfully passes the challenging test in an isolated glass booth, scoring 100% in a record five minutes. Failure three times results in immediate dismissal. Most new recruits drop out within the first few months. Memorizing the city blocks with a tape recording fails due to momentary drowsiness. His triumphant performance on the exam brings official congratulations from the head of the postal department.

Joyce begins an office romance with a coworker nicknamed Purple Hairpin and files for divorce. Without further ado, Chinaski leaves his property to his wife and moves into rented room number 409.

Betty’s Tragedy and the Del Mar Races

In a cheap hotel room, Betty rapidly withers from alcoholism. The county hospital greets her with a filthy ward and the complete indifference of the staff on duty. Betty dies alone. Only her son Larry, the detached and mute Marcy, and Chinaski attend the funeral. The roses in the purchased funeral wreath dry in the hot sun near the grave.

The racetrack brings a large win of three thousand dollars. Shift supervisor Winters agrees to give the clerk a three-month vacation under threat of resignation. Henry rents a room on the ground floor of a beachfront motel by the ocean. Evenings are filled with steaks, aged whiskey, and lucky bets on little-known racehorses. An encounter with a drunken Mary Lou culminates in a confrontation with her friend Hector. Chinaski knocks the switchblade out of his attacker’s hand with a bottle and ends the conversation.

Family life and street unrest

The end of his vacation brings the employee back to the night shop with the chatty author of rejected manuscripts, Dave Janko. A graying pacifist named Faye appears in the rented apartment, dressed in mourning. She attends writing classes and accumulates mountains of empty cans in the sink.

The couple gives birth to a daughter, Marina Luisa. The birth goes well. The father examines his newborn daughter. Riots and arson engulf the southern neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Military patrols set up checkpoints and declare a curfew. Faye takes the girl and leaves for a hippie commune in New Mexico to live with the artist Andy.

Dismissal and the decision to write prose

Eleven years of monotonous work are devastating to his health. Constantly shuffling letters with his right hand triggers bouts of nausea and joint pain. Chinaski gains weight and regularly leaves work early. The postal inspection agency bombards the clerk with official warnings about absenteeism and disciplinary suspensions.

Councilor Eddie Beaver, nicknamed Skinny Beaver, starts a showdown over a five-minute delay in sorting a pallet. A stray spark from a cigar ignites a cart of Class IV advertising brochures. Nurse Helen bandages burned palms. Union activist Parker Anderson unsuccessfully attempts to determine the reason for the sudden removal of drinking fountains from all workshops.

Chinaski announces his final resignation. Federal personnel officers are told an absurd story about plans to hunt muskrats and nutria in the Louisiana swamps.

The final settlement turns into a two-week bender in a cluttered apartment, where a random medical student named Wilbert leaves a glass jar containing a preserved heart named Francis, while hippie acquaintances bring orange flowers and invite the owner on a night of bar crawling. The next morning, a hungover Chinaski sits down at his desk and decides to write a novel.