"South Without a Sign of North" by Charles Bukowski, summary

The book comprises twenty-seven short stories that capture the underbelly of American society. It depicts rented rooms, cheap bars, racetracks, and hospital wards. The plots revolve around characters with broken lives, deprived of a stable income and peace of mind. The collection of short stories, "South Without a Sign of North," was published in 1973.

Los Angeles’s underbelly, bars, and communal living

In the opening story, "Loneliness," thirty-seven-year-old Edna notices a sign on a car window: accountant Joe Lighthill is seeking a woman for marriage. The woman comes to visit. The host starts a conversation about mutual alienation and sexual orgies, after which he pounces on the guest, kissing her. Edna knees him in the groin and hurries home to wash up in the bathtub.

The youthful memories in the story "Curtain Crash" harken back to the Great Depression. Three friends scrounge together pennies for a streetcar ticket to Main Street, visit the cheap Burbank burlesque theater, ogle the dancer Rosalie, and fight for hours until they’re bloody and bruised in front of their indifferent parents.

The novella "You, Your Beer, and How Great You Are" follows boxer Jack Baekenveld. After a grueling fight, the light heavyweight returns to his friend Ann and drinks beer, despite his trainer’s orders. The fighter’s endless bragging ruins their alliance. Ann packs her suitcase, Patty, his ex-lover, has already found another partner, and Jack picks up a random hitchhiker from the street.

The grotesque episode "The Door to Heaven Is Closed" unfolds in a midnight bar. The narrator meets a girl named Dawn, who carries four tiny, living humans in a wire cage. At her companion’s home, the characters observe the babies’ lovemaking. A jealous Anna castrates her roommate, George, after which a shocked Hank runs out into the night in a panic.

In "The Politician," Chinaski, a student at Los Angeles City College, declares himself a Nazi out of disgust at the dull speeches of patriots. The young rebel ditched gym classes, marched around the courtyard, and drank fortified port with his friend Zirkoff. The farce culminates with a radio broadcast of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Dangerous Liaisons, Violence and the Grotesque

The plot of "Love at 17:50" centers on Robert, who buys a display mannequin from a junk shop. He names the doll Stella, dresses it in lingerie, kisses its synthetic face, and experiences genuine passion. His jealous lover, Brenda, accidentally discovers the figure in a closet, screams wildly, and smashes the plastic to pieces.

Two wanderers from the novella "Two Drunkards" get hired to lay railroad ties in the California desert. Chinaski and the elderly drifter Papik toil under the scorching sun, driving deep splinters into their palms. That evening, they listen to the old man’s drunken rants about his lost family, receive pennies for their hard work, and part ways forever at the counter of a roadside bar.

The story "Madja Turup" reveals the marriage of American Hester Adams to a South American cannibal. For five hundred dollars, the editor sends Chinaski to conduct a scandalous interview with the unusual couple. In the living room, the savage plays bongs, and photographer Sam, who peeks into the kitchen, discovers the remains of his dismembered wife in the refrigerator and rushes to the phone booth to call the police.

The crime sketch "The Killers" brings together two ragamuffins who decide to rob a wealthy Beverly Hills mansion. The robber, Bill, slits the throat of the young homeowner. The robbers take turns raping a stunned widow, after which Bill cold-bloodedly strangles a witness. Reaching a bus stop, the accomplices are horrified to realize they forgot to take the victim’s wallet.

The story "The Man" takes us to George’s dingy trailer. A drunken Constance, having stolen six hundred dollars from her finicky husband, comes running to the dishwasher. An enraged George slaps her across the face, burns her wrist with a smoldering cigarette butt, demands she lift her skirt, sings old blues, and falls asleep while his guest quietly slips out into the night to rejoin her lawful husband.

The literary world, the hippodrome and hospital wards

A literary grotesque emerges in the sketch "Class." Young Chinaski challenges Ernest Hemingway to a sparring match, enters the ring with a cigar in his mouth, and with a series of punches, knocks the venerable classic out cold. His victory is followed by the admiration of society ladies and an offer from critics to print his manuscripts from a battered suitcase.

The parody Western "Stop Staring at My Tits, Mister" features the bandit Big Bart. The thug attempts to subdue the young beauty Honey, who is traveling with a young man nicknamed "The Kid." Before the decisive shootout, the young woman cold-bloodedly shoots her protector in the forehead with a shotgun and rides off with the caravan leader.

In the short story "Something About a Viet Cong Flag," the drifter Red encounters the hippie Sally and her two companions near freight tracks. At knifepoint, the attacker leads the girl behind some boulders while the companions hold a flag and wait obediently. Later, the companion admits to enjoying the rough treatment, and the abandoned flag remains in the dust under the feet of ants.

The story "You Can’t Write a Love Story" portrays author Carl Gantling. Writer’s block, endless bottles of beer, and the caustic reproaches of his friend Margie give way to a phone call from his college offering a fee for a public reading. Carl sits down at the typewriter and scribbles out the first paragraph of a new text.

The novella "Remember Pearl Harbor?" depicts Chinaski’s daily life in prison. The prisoner beats his cellmates at dice, buys hearty meals from a murderous cook, and argues with investigators. At an army medical examination, a psychiatrist questions the rebel about his readiness to fight, after which the commission finds him unfit for active duty.

The gambling drama "Pittsburgh Phil & Company" tells the story of neighbor Joe Summerfield. A loser, he attends his first horse race and unexpectedly guesses eight winners out of nine. Joe buys an expensive car and dons diamond rings, but within two years, he’s down to his last penny and is once again knocking on Hank’s door begging for two dollars.

In the story "Dr. Nazi," Chinaski’s medical experience brings him together with Dr. Kiepenhauer. The former Wehrmacht soldier lances a patient’s abscesses, furiously cursing his ex-wife and discussing the madness of women. Later, Chinaski comes to the doctor with a panicky fear of queues and earwax buildup.

Wandering on the edge and salvation

An atmosphere of behind-the-scenes deception pervades the story "Roller Christ." Competition director Joe Mason scolds roller skater Monster Choniacki for breaking his opponent’s ribs. The bosses explain to the bully that their derby relies on the spectacular feigned anger, while real injuries could ruin a profitable business.

The poet’s fate is revealed in the short story "The Red-Nosed Delivery Clerk." Warehouse worker Randall Harris drinks for days, writes poignant poems on torn sheets of paper, and has a string of women. The resounding success of his Broadway play brings the author recognition and a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, where the butler no longer allows his old friend Chinaski to enter the house.

The farce "The Devil Was Hot" depicts the redemption of a genuine fallen angel from a circus performer’s cage. The newly empowered guest incinerates a dog and the grumpy landlady, Flo, with a laser from his finger, demanding grilled steaks. Hank leaves the demon with the seductress Edna and finds solace in the arms of another man’s wife.

The drama "Flint" depicts drunken evenings in a rented room. Comrade Marty is driven mad by love for his down-and-out neighbor, Jeanie. Chinaski descends into the dark basement with a bottle of whiskey, spends the night with the beauty, and a week later learns of her final expulsion from the apartment building.

The theme of contract killing appears in the novella "The Hitman." The hitman, Ronnie, collects a deposit from a German bar, drives down the highway to the victim’s mansion, and cold-bloodedly drowns the young woman in her bathtub before escaping in his car.

A poetry tour in the story "This Is What Killed Dylan Thomas" lands Chinaski in San Francisco under the spotlight of television cameras. The performance devolves into a drunken onstage brawl. The night culminates in a brawl with his lover, Laura, a deep bite to his arm, and a rough flight back to Los Angeles.

A trip to Catalina Island in the novella "No Neck and Bad as Hell" results in the hero suffering from stomach pain, the purchase of a neckless parrot named Avalon, conversations with Hemingway’s ghost in a bar, and a quick escape to the mainland.

The story "How the Dead Love" connects random connections, the preparation of an unsuccessful robbery of a passerby with a baseball bat, and a saving coincidence: an absurd newspaper headline distracts the desperate Chinaski from thoughts of suicide.

The medical satire "All the Butts in the World and Mine" depicts an operation to remove chronic hemorrhoids. In a Catholic hospital, the hero endures humiliating examinations, the shouting of his roommates, the unbearable noise of the television, and returns to a cubbyhole with a broken water heater.

The final autobiographical novella, "Confessions of a Man Crazy Enough to Live with Animals," is a collection of memoirs. Adolescent agony from terrible boils at a charity clinic gives way to a dangerous stomach hemorrhage and a grueling twelve-hour shift at a meatpacking plant among the carcasses of slaughtered cattle. After wandering with his girlfriend Pepper on one-armed Willie Hansen’s yacht, the hero impulsively marries wealthy Texas publisher Nicky Dyer by correspondence, surveys his father-in-law’s estates, and returns to the solitude of his typewriter.