Post Office by Charles Bukowski

Post Office is an account of one man's struggle with regular employment. Henry Chinaski is a heavy drinker, gambler and philanderer. His actions are often crass and immoral, and his behavior gets quite sketchy at times, but despite all this, it's hard not to identify and sympathize with him. For the reader, there is a guilty sense of vicarious liberation that comes from living in his shoes. He acts according to his desires, with little concern for the long term. His voice is irreverent, offensive, funny, and very refreshing.

Charles Bukowski was born in Germany, shortly after World War I, to a German mother and American soldier father. When he was two years, eight months old, his parents put him on a ship and brought him to the United States, where they settled in Los Angeles, California, near the father's family. Shortly after America joined World War II, Bukowski left Los Angeles, traveling to various cities around the country, spending the bulk of his time in Philadelphia and New Orleans. In 1947 he returned to Los Angeles, where he lived for the remainder of his life.