Best Charles Bukowski Books
Book Recommendations / Best Charles Bukowski Books
All The Best Charles Bukowski Books I Have Read
Charles Bukowski is one of my all-time favourite writers. I mean, you want to talk about a guy who’s honest, raw, unfiltered, shameless – that is Charles Bukowski.
“Factotum” is an autobiographical character based on him, essentially working a series of dead-end, menial jobs for only days or weeks at a time, just enough to get by to pay his rent, support his alcoholism, and therefore his writing as well. So, like most of his work, it’s a dark comedy which follows a life of what society would consider as a dropkick, working all these dead-end jobs, encountering all these just bizarre, absurd fringe characters. And the combination between them and his quick wit and his cynical, miserable, but also romantic and uh, idealistic perspective just makes it just a hilarious series of events throughout.
His style of writing is very short and impactful, short sentences similar to Hemingway, who is an influence of his, which makes it a very easy joy to read. And if you’re the type of person that’s had a bunch of miserable, dead-end jobs, you’ve got a little bit of an anti-Rat Race sentiment, then Charles Bukowski will be 100% for you, no doubt.
"Ham On Rye" by Charles Bukowski
“Ham on Rye” is another one for the great Charles Bukowski. Except this one is a semi-autobiographical account of his life from early childhood up until early adulthood. And it basically details how he became the raw, honest, unfiltered, shameless legendary writer that he became.
So it’s set in the 1920s, talks about his extremely abusive father, emotionally and physically, and his seemingly neglectful mother as well. It talks about him getting bullied at school for being a German immigrant, but also for the horrific acne that he had. And as well as that, in combination of not getting much attention from women, which becomes a core theme in all of his works in the future, and a combination of all of these traumatic experiences, uh, as well as him genetically just being a very unique, different, fringe character, paints the picture of how he became the unique character that he was.
So if you have a misanthropic, I hate people, I’m disappointed with the unrealized potential of humanity, Bukowski will definitely ring true for you. So “Ham on Rye” by Charles Bukowski, check it out.
"Post Office" by Charles Bukowski
“Post Office” is another gem novel from Bukowski, which is one of my favorites of his. It’s got all the same typical Bukowski: the short, simple but impactful sentences, very easy read, riddled with humor, despair, Romanticism, cynicism – all the typical Bukowski stuff.
But this one has a little bit of a different tone. So the novel’s called “Post Office” and it was written when he was in his later middle age. But it’s different because instead of going from job to job, he’s actually chosen to stick with one job at the post office for 10 years. And as a result, there’s more of a depressing, bitter, darker tone to it as he’s recognizing that this depressing, menial, dead-end job may be his fate for the rest of his life as he’s trying to make it as a writer.
So for that reason, it takes a different tone, but it’s got the same humor, the same crude, dirty stories, the same beautiful existential philosophical musings talking about the inherent grind and struggle of life and more eccentric characters that he meets along the way. If you’ve read a few of his books, this one will hit a little bit different if you know what I mean. It’s a little bit difficult to describe, but it’s a gem for sure.